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1. Introduction

 Until recent times, the role of the coupled ocean-low atmosphere system was the only one to be considered in the climate studies. Recently it has been recognised that one must take into account the stratospheric behaviour in many aspects of the studies of climate change. The dynamical, chemical and radiative processes which occur in the stratosphere all influence climate. On the basis of radiative transfer calculations, numerical simulations of a CO2 increase reveal that cooling should be considerably greater in the stratosphere and mesosphere than warming at the surface and in the troposphere. In addition to the study of the stratosphere, the vertical and temporal pattern of changes observed in the stratosphere with ground-based profilers, may be used as a "fingerprint" of various climate forcing. However, long data series in the middle atmosphere are not numerous. Moreover, discontinuities that may have occurred are a limited factor for trend estimates. Hereafter, the methodology is described as well as the data requirements. The instrumental changes for rockets, lidar and NCEP analyses are reported with a particular emphasis on tidal interferences. Some preliminary trend estimated are also reported.