Clouds have long been recognised as one of the key moderators of the Earth’s atmosphere.  How cloud properties, height, temperature, optical depth and effective radius change over time and interact with water vapour and aerosols, significantly complicates prediction of future climate, as has been recognised by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  Furthermore knowledge of clouds can be important for understanding extreme weather events and estimating the solar fluxes.  I will present some of the first results from the ESA funded climate change initiative to generate a long time record of cloud and flux properties form polar orbiting satellites AVHRR and ATSR-2 and AATSR . The record covers multiple instruments and begins in the early 80s. Validation  and trend analysis will be discussed as well as future plans for algorithms and applications.