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That was using the method of light curve dipping...the method they're using here is still spectroscopy, which is different. Using spectroscopy, they can quite easily determine the surface temp of a planet, from just about any distance....so long as they receive enough light from it to get a reasonable spectrum.
They would still need an OWL sized scope, even with the best of their detector technology, to gather enough light to directly detect the changes in intensity of starlight shining through an exoplanet's atmosphere. The have to be able to resolve the planet as a disk to be able to use this method...it's going to be some time before we're able to do that to Earth sized planets.
But this is an interesting set of observations that they should be pursuing. It would be interesting to be able to detect a volcanic eruption in progress on an exoplanet.
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