"Surface stations" refers to locations or structures on the Earth's surface that are used for various purposes, such as monitoring weather conditions, conducting scientific experiments, or providing services like transportation. Full definition
The data presented here has been constructed from thousands of surface station measurements from around the world, and tends to be a couple hours behind real - time. (berkeleyearth.org)
Where I think you disagree with many people in the field is whether we currently have the ability to measure that uptake with anything near the precision and coverage we get with surface stations. (realclimate.org)
To further our understanding on what is happening with the climate, we need to look at the spatial information captured by surface stations. (science20.com)