This paper discusses the use of measurements of the spectrum of outgoing longwave radiation, measured from space, as a mechanism for detecting and attributing any cause to climate change. Observations are available from two experiments, one flown by NASA in 1970 (the InfraRed Interferometer Spectrometer, IRIS), and the other flown by Japan's NASDA in 1997 (the Interferometric Monitor for Greenhouse gases, IMG). The paper discusses the accuracy and precision of these experiments, and illustrates the difference between average spectra from both. A simulation of the difference spectrum shows that the observed features are consistent with an increase of CO_2, average temperature and CH_4 in the period 1970 to 1997.
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