Envisat is a large inactive Earth-observing satellite, still in orbit. Operated by the European Space Agency, it was the world's largest civilian Earth observation satellite, it was launched on 1 March 2002 aboard an Ariane 5 from the Guyana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, into a Sun synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 790 ± 10 km. It orbits the Earth in about 101 minutes, with a repeat cycle of 35 days. After losing contact with the satellite on 8 April 2012, ESA formally announced the end of Envisat's mission on 9 May 2012. Envisat cost 2.3 billion Euro to launch. The mission has been replaced by the Sentinel series of satellites; the first of these, Sentinel 1, has taken over the radar duties of Envisat since its launch in 2014. Envisat was launched as an Earth observation satellite, its objective was to service the continuity of European Remote-Sensing Satellite missions, providing additional observational parameters to improve environmental studies. In working towards the global and regional objectives of the mission, numerous scientific disciplines use the data acquired from the different sensors on the satellite to study such things as atmospheric chemistry, ozone depletion, biological oceanography, ocean temperature and colour, wind waves, hydrology and arboriculture, natural hazards, digital elevation modelling, monitoring of maritime traffic, atmospheric dispersion modelling and study of snow and ice.

Dimensions26 m × 10 m × 5 m in orbit with the solar array deployed. Mass8,211 kg, including 319 kg of fuel and a 2,118 kg instrument payload. PowerSolar array with a total load of 3560 W. Envisat carries an array of nine Earth-observation instruments that gathered information about the Earth using a variety of measurement principles. A tenth instrument, DORIS, provided control. Several of the instruments were advanced versions of instruments that were flown on the earlier ERS 1 and ERS 2 missions and other satellites. MWR was designed for measuring water vapour in the atmosphere. AATSR can measure the sea surface temperature in the infrared spectra; because of its wide angle lens it is possible to make precise measurements of atmospheric effects on how emissions from the Earth's surface propagate. AATSR is the successor of ATSR1 and ATSR2, payloads of ERS 1 and ERS 2. AATSR can measure Earth's surface temperature for climate research. Among the secondary objectives of AATSR is the observation of environmental parameters such as water content and vegetal health and growth.

MIPAS is a Fourier transforming infrared spectrometer which provides pressure and temperature profiles, profiles of trace gases nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide, nitric acid and water in the stratosphere. The instrument functions with high spectral resolution in an extended spectral band, which allows coverage across the Earth in all seasons and at equal quality night and day. MIPAS has a vertical resolution of 3 to 5 km depending on altitude. MERIS measures the reflectance of the Earth in the solar spectral range and transmits 15 spectral bands back to the ground segment. MERIS was built at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center. SCIAMACHY compares light coming from the sun to light reflected by the Earth, which provides information on the atmosphere through which the Earth-reflected light has passed. SCIAMACHY is an image spectrometer with the principal objective of mapping the concentration of trace gases and aerosols in the troposphere and stratosphere. Rays of sunlight that are reflected transmitted and reflected by the atmosphere are captured at a high spectral resolution for wavelengths between 240 and 1700 nm, in certain spectra between 2,000 and 2,400 nm.

Its high spectral resolution over a wide range of wavelengths can detect many trace gases in tiny concentrations. The wavelengths captured allow effective detection of aerosols and clouds. SCIAMACHY uses 3 different targeting modes: to the nadir, to the limbus, during solar or lunar eclipses. SCIAMACHY was built by Netherlands and Germany at TNO/TPD, SRON and Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands. RA-2 is a dual-frequency Nadir pointing Radar operating in the Ku band and S bands, it is used to define ocean topography, map/monitor sea ice and measure land heights. Mean sea level measurements from Envisat are continuously graphed at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales web site, on the Aviso page. ASAR operates in the C band in a wide variety of modes, it can detect changes in surface heights with sub-millimeter precision. It served as a data link for ERS 1 and ERS 2, providing numerous functions such as observations of different polarities of light or combining different polarities, angles of incidence and spatial resolutions.

These different types of raw data can be given several levels of treatment: RAW, which contains all the information necessary to create images. S, images in complex numeric form, the real and i

The Kerala Gazetted Officers' Union is a common platform for the gazetted officers of Kerala having democratic and secularist views. KGOU started functioning in the state of Kerala during 1984, separating from the KGOA after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. KGOU politically extends support to the activities of the largest and oldest democratic party of India. KGOU moves ahead in protecting the rights of civil servants and at the same time works for an efficient and transparent civil service having commitment to the society. Sri K. P. Radhakrishnan was the founder-president of KGOU. President: Sri. K. Vimalan Vice Presidents: Sri. K. J. Kuriakose Sri. S. Ramadas Sri. C. M. Gopinathan Sri. K. C. SubramanianGeneral Secretary: Sri. T. A. Padmakumar Secretaries: Sri. V. M. Srikanth Dr. I. M. Muhsin Koya Sri. U. Sharafudeen Sri. B. Gopakumar Sri. A. Abdul Harris Smt. Beena PoovathilTreasurer: Dr. Manoj Johnson State Secretariat Members: Sri. Thomas Scaria Sri. K. R. Rajesh Kumar Sri. Abu Paravakkal Sri. P. I.

Subairkutty Sri. Moncy P. Alexander Dr. A. Muthukumar Dr. Titto Joseph Sri. G. Dillep Sri. P. A. Padmakumar Sri. Shibu K. Chacko Sri. S. Anil Kumar Sri. B. Ramanujan PillaiWomen's Forum Convener: Smt. S. J. VijayaWomen's Forum Joint Convener: Smt. R. Rema President: Dr. T. Radhakrishnan Secretary: Sri. S. Sunil Kumar President: Sri. K. Johnson Secretary: B. Ramanujan Pillai President: Sri. B. Rameshan Secretary: Sri. Thomas Antony President: Sri. S. Mahesh Secretary: Sri. P. G. Prakash President: Sri. S. Binoj Secretary: Sri. G. Jayasankar Prasad President: Sri. Gireeswaran. V Secretary: Sri. Mohandas. K. N President: Sri. C. V. Benny Secretary: Sri. K. N. Manoj President: Sri. V. M. Shine Secretary: Dr. C. B. Ajith Kumar President: Sri. Brijesh. C Secretary: Sri. Babu Varghese President: Sri. C. T. Chandramouleeswaran Secretary: Sri. Sivakumar. R President: Sri U S JIJITH Secretary: Sri K P RAJAN President: Sri. K. Sasikumar Secretary: Sri. V. Salim President: Sri. C. Unnikrishnan Secretary: Sri. K. K. Rajesh President: Sri.

P. Veugopalan Secretary: Sri. Kulathoor Narayanan KGOU official website

Little Joe II was an American rocket used from 1963-1966 for five uncrewed tests of the Apollo spacecraft launch escape system, to verify the performance of the command module parachute recovery system in abort mode. It was named after a similar rocket designed for the same function in Project Mercury. Launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, it was the smallest of four launch rockets used in the Apollo program. Human-rating of the Apollo launch escape system was planned to be accomplished at minimum cost early in the program. Since there were no reasonably priced launch vehicles with the payload capability and thrust versatility that could meet the requirements of the planned tests, a contract was awarded for the development and construction of a specialized launch vehicle; the rocket's predecessor, Little Joe, had been used in testing the launch escape system for the Mercury spacecraft from 1959-1960. The program was planned to be conducted at the U. S. Air Force Eastern Test Range at Cape Kennedy, Florida.

However, because of a heavy schedule of high-priority launches at that facility, other possible launch sites were evaluated including Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Launch Complex 36 at White Sands Missile Range used for Redstone missile tests, was selected as the most suitable for meeting schedule and support requirements. White Sands allowed land recovery, less costly and complicated than the water recovery that would have been required at the Eastern Test Range or at the NASA Wallops Island facility; the program was conducted under the direction of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Texas, with joint participation by the prime contractors for the launch vehicle and spacecraft. The White Sands Missile Range administrative and technical organizations provided the facilities and services required; these included range safety and camera tracking, command transmission, real-time data displays, telemetry data acquisition, data reduction, recovery operations.

Little Joe II was a single-stage, solid-propellant rocket which used a booster motor developed for the Recruit rocket, a sustainer motor developed for the Algol stage of the Scout rocket family. It could fly with a variable number of booster and sustainer motors, but all were contained within a single airframe. Fabrication of the detail parts for the first vehicle started in August 1962, the final factory systems checkout was completed in July 1963. There was an original fixed-fin configuration and a version using flight controls; the vehicle was sized to match the diameter of the Apollo spacecraft service module and to suit the length of the Algol rocket motors. Aerodynamic fins were sized to assure; the structural design was based on a gross weight of 220,000 pounds, of which 80,000 pounds was payload. The structure was designed for sequential firing with a possible 10-second overlap of four first-stage and three second-stage sustainer motors. Sustainer thrust was provided by Algol solid-propellant motors.

The versatility of performance was achieved by varying the number and firing sequence of the primary motors required to perform the mission. Recruit rocket motors were used for booster motors. A simplified design and manufacturing concept was used to limit the number of vehicle components, reduce construction time, hold vehicle cost to a minimum; because overall weight was not a limiting factor in the design, over designing of primary structural members reduced the number and complexity of structural proof tests. Whenever possible, vehicle systems were designed to use available off-the-shelf components that had proven reliability from use in other aerospace programs, this further reduced overall costs by minimizing the amount of qualification testing required; the Little Joe II launch vehicle proved to be acceptable for use in this program. Two difficulties were experienced; the Qualification Test Vehicle did not destruct when commanded to do so because improperly installed primacord did not propagate the initial detonation to the shaped charges on the Algol motor case.

The fourth mission launch vehicle became uncontrolled about 2.5 seconds after lift-off when an aerodynamic fin moved to a hard over position as the result of an electronic failure. These problems were corrected and the abort test program was completed; the Qualification Test Vehicle launch, on 28 August 1963, carried a dummy payload consisting of an aluminum shell in the basic shape of the Apollo command module, with an inert LES attached, demonstrated the rocket would work for the A-001 launch. This occurred on 13 May 1964, with a boilerplate BP-12 command module, performed the first successful abort using a live LES. A third launch on 8 December 1964, using BP-23, tested the effectiveness of the LES when the pressures and stresses on the spacecraft were similar to what they would be during a Saturn IB or Saturn V launch; the fourth flight, with BP-22 on 19 May 1965, was designed to test the escape system at a high altitude. The final launch, on 20 January 1966, carried the first production spacecraft, CSM-002.

Minor spacecraft design deficiencies in the parachute reefing cutters, the drogue and main parachute deployment mortar mountings, the command and service module umbilical cutters were found and corrected before the crewed Apollo flights began. However, all command modules flown achieved satis