##FUNCTION TO DOWNLOAD NCDF FROM MET OFFICE 

  get.hadcru=function(dset= "HadCRUT3") {

	download.file(paste("http://hadobs.metoffice.com/",casefold(dset),"/data/",dset,".nc",sep=""),"temp.dat",mode="wb")   #18.9 MB 
	v<-open.ncdf("temp.dat")
	instr <- get.var.ncdf( v, v$var[[1]]) # 1850 2006
	dim(instr)# [1]  72   36 1899
		#this is organized in 72 longitudes from -177.5 to 177.5 and 36 latitudes from -87.5 to 87.5
	instr=aperm(instr,c(3,1,2))
	instr=instr[,,36:1]
	dim0=dim(instr)
	instr= array(instr,dim=c(dim0[1],72*36))
	instr=ts(instr,start=1850,freq=12)
	return(instr)
  } 

    #	hadcru=get.hadcru(dset=HadCRUT3")