In particular, their assessments have depended heavily on measurements of temperature from ground-based instruments.

ECONOMIST: Climate change: Getting real | The

Hurtling towards the stratosphere the balloon was fitted with weather instruments designed to measure, among other things, temperature, pressure and wind speed.

BBC: Giant weather balloon carries out its sky mission

Metop's suite of instruments retrieve a range of data - from the temperature and water content of the different layers in the atmosphere to the speed of the winds whipping across the ocean, and from the health of the ozone layer to the spread of volcanic ash plumes across the sky.

BBC: Weather satellites and the gathering storm