  Following a recent proposal [C. Muschik et. al., Phys. Rev. A 83, 052312
(2011)], engineered dissipative processes have been used for the generation of
stable entanglement between two macroscopic atomic ensembles at room
temperature [H. Krauter et. al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 080503 (2011)]. This
experiment included the preparation of entangled states which are continuously
available during a time interval of one hour. Here, we present additional
material, further-reaching data and an extension of the theory developed in [C.
Muschik et. al., Phys. Rev. A 83, 052312 (2011)]. In particular, we show how
the combination of the entangling dissipative mechanism with measurements can
give rise to a substantial improvement of the generated entanglement in the
presence of noise.
