The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is responsible for the stewardship of global climatological data to support a variety of applications in the private, research, and public sectors. This includes the development of datasets to be used as input for a planned global climatological reanalysis. In support of these activities and to better streamline operations, NCDC implemented a plan to integrate surface climatological data into a common format and data model and process these data through one processing system that capitalizes on network independent standardized quality control algorithms and procedures.

The Integrated Surface Database (ISD) consists of global surface observations compiled from numerous sources, into a single common ASCII format and common data model. ISD development began in 1998 as a joint activity within Asheville's Federal Climate Complex (FCC), consisting of NCDC and the U.S. Air Force and Navy. ISD integrates data from over 100 original data sources, including numerous data formats which were key-entered from paper forms. The database currently comprises over 20,000 stations worldwide, with over 11,000 stations “active” and updated daily in the database. These figures will be increasing substantially over the next several years. ISD Version 1 was released in 2001, with Version 2 (additional quality control applied) in 2003. Since 2003, there have been continued incremental improvements in automated quality control software, along with additional partnerships to further enhance the temporal and spatial coverage of the data.

The current partnerships include:

- The Climate Database Modernization Program (CDMP), which provided for publications and forms as far back as the 1800s to be scanned, digitized, and integrated into ISD, and includes data processing at the Northeast Regional Climate Center.

- The National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is providing numerous datasets of global and national origin to be integrated into ISD.

- The FCC's Air Force Combat Climatology Center (AFCCC) and US Navy Fleet Numerical Meteorological and Oceanographic Command Detachment (FNMOC Det), which provide continued flow and processing of global hourly, synoptic, and military station data.

- NOAA's National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, and NOAA's Climate Reference Network (CRN), which provide datastreams into ISD on a daily basis.