The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago. The Miocene was named by Charles Lyell; the Miocene is followed by the Pliocene. As the earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate cooled towards a series of ice ages; the Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regionally defined boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene Epoch. The apes first evolved and diversified during the early Miocene, becoming widespread in the Old World. By the end of this epoch and the start of the following one, the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path during the final Messinian stage of the Miocene; as in the Oligocene before it, grasslands continued to forests to dwindle in extent. In the seas of the Miocene, kelp forests made their first appearance and soon became one of Earth's most productive ecosystems.

The plants and animals of the Miocene were recognizably modern. Mammals and birds were well-established. Whales and kelp spread; the Miocene is of particular interest to geologists and palaeoclimatologists as major phases of the geology of the Himalaya occurred during the Miocene, affecting monsoonal patterns in Asia, which were interlinked with glacial periods in the northern hemisphere. The Miocene faunal stages from youngest to oldest are named according to the International Commission on Stratigraphy: Regionally, other systems are used, based on characteristic land mammals. Of the modern geologic features, only the land bridge between South America and North America was absent, although South America was approaching the western subduction zone in the Pacific Ocean, causing both the rise of the Andes and a southward extension of the Meso-American peninsula. Mountain building took place in western North America and East Asia. Both continental and marine Miocene deposits are common worldwide with marine outcrops common near modern shorelines.

Well studied continental exposures occur in Argentina. India continued creating dramatic new mountain ranges; the Tethys seaway continued to shrink and disappeared as Africa collided with Eurasia in the Turkish–Arabian region between 19 and 12 Ma. The subsequent uplift of mountains in the western Mediterranean region and a global fall in sea levels combined to cause a temporary drying up of the Mediterranean Sea near the end of the Miocene; the global trend was towards increasing aridity caused by global cooling reducing the ability of the atmosphere to absorb moisture. Uplift of East Africa in the late Miocene was responsible for the shrinking of tropical rain forests in that region, Australia got drier as it entered a zone of low rainfall in the Late Miocene. During the Oligocene and Early Miocene the coast of northern Brazil, south-central Peru, central Chile and large swathes of inland Patagonia were subject to a marine transgression; the transgressions in the west coast of South America is thought to be caused by a regional phenomenon while the rising central segment of the Andes represents an exception.

While there are numerous registers of Oligo-Miocene transgressions around the world it is doubtful that these correlate. It is thought that the Oligo-Miocene transgression in Patagonia could have temporarily linked the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, as inferred from the findings of marine invertebrate fossils of both Atlantic and Pacific affinity in La Cascada Formation. Connection would have occurred through narrow epicontinental seaways that formed channels in a dissected topography; the Antarctic Plate started to subduct beneath South America 14 million years ago in the Miocene, forming the Chile Triple Junction. At first the Antarctic Plate subducted only in the southernmost tip of Patagonia, meaning that the Chile Triple Junction lay near the Strait of Magellan; as the southern part of Nazca Plate and the Chile Rise became consumed by subduction the more northerly regions of the Antarctic Plate begun to subduct beneath Patagonia so that the Chile Triple Junction advanced to the north over time.

The asthenospheric window associated to the triple junction disturbed previous patterns of mantle convection beneath Patagonia inducing an uplift of ca. 1 km that reversed the Oligocene–Miocene transgression. As the southern Andes rose in the Middle Miocene the resulting rain shadow originated the Patagonian Desert to the east. Climates remained moderately warm, although the slow global cooling that led to the Pleistocene glaciations continued. Although a long-term cool

Mission Kakatiya is a programme for restoring all the minor irrigation tanks and lakes in Telangana State, India. The programme helps in rejuvenating 46,531 tanks and lakes, storing 265 TMC water across the state in five years; this is the first program to be taken up by the Government of Telangana after coming into power in June 2014. The tanks and lakes are dug to remove silt for increasing water storage capacity; the household agricultural income has increased by 78.50% in the tank ayacut area. The agriculture was depended on the tanks; until the Nizam rule, the tanks had a capacity of 244 TMC in Telangana region, but due to negligence most of it was lost. The irrigated land under 70,000 tanks in 1956 was around 25 lakh acres. By 2014 the tanks left were 46,531, nearly half of them were dry; the farmers started depending on water wells for agriculture. When the water table depleted the wells dried up, farmers started digging borewells, which dried up for lack of Land and Groundwater; the program was inaugurated on 12 March 2015 by the Chief Minister of Telangana, K. Chandrashekar Rao, his brainchild, at Pathan Cheruvu in Sadashiva Nagar in Nizamabad district Hyberabad.

It is expected to be completed by end of 2018. The name'Mission Kakatiya' is a tribute to the Kakatiya rulers, who developed a large number of the chain tanks across Telangana for agriculture; the project is taken up by Minister of T. Harish Rao; the project was taken up in five phases: Phase one - 8003 tanks Phase two - 8927 tanks Phase three - 5886 tanks Phase four - 6000 tanks Phase five - Remainder and New tanks creationBig tanks and lakes, with higher ayacut, were taken up first. By March 2018, 27,713 lakes work was completed, spending ₹8700 crores and providing water for 20 lakh acres; the usage of silt or soil, rich in soil nutrients was transferred by the farmers to their fields. Nearly 7 Crore tractor silt dug up from the tanks was used by the farmers; the crop yield proved to be a boon, as published by pioneering, patented work of a Telangana farmer, Chintala Venkat Reddy. The yield for cotton had gone up by 11.6%, maize by 6.7% and paddy by 4.4%. And the fisherman’s income went up by 30-35%.

By using surface water instead of bore well water there was a marked change in quality. Over 2.88 lakh acres of new ayacut was stabilised and will reach 12 lakh acres by the completion of the project. The ground water table increased from 6.9% to 9.2%. The livelihood of fisherman community was restored; the water activist, popularly known as Waterman of India, Rajendra Singh, toured the rejuvenated lakes and was impressed by the turnaround of life. He celebrated his birthday in 2016 on a lake bund in Warangal; the geotagging and geospatial database is maintained for analysis and monitoring. Every tank is assigned a unique GEOID, based on its longitude; this helps the engineers to plan and monitor with an exhaustive and realtime data, obviating the need for manual recording. The sanitization of the tank database is done by Command Area Development Authority; this is helping the Department to estimate the area of irrigated land, crops under a given tank, for each season using satellite imagery like Google Earth.

The project has resulted in return of many migratory birds because of water levels and fishes in the tanks. The project is being studied by different government agencies, two US based universities, University of Michigan and University of Chicago. University of Michigan study group are developing a low-cost way to increase crop yield and reduce the use of fertilizers for Indian farmers. A multi-disciplinary team of 16 students, from eight schools of the university, after having analysed the work in two villages of Adilabad and Karimnagar districts for 12 months to learn about the program’s effectiveness, their findings include reduction of fertilizer usage, reduced power utilization, increase in crop yield. University of Chicago’s Tata Development Centre has come forward to do a detailed 2-year study of the program, which will evaluate its impact on agricultural and economic outcome. Government of Telangana requested; the findings in Impact Assessment Report, was carried out in late 2017 on phase 1 part, found that the ayacut increased over 51% after the project, 17% dried up wells and borewells sea water coming back, decrease in utilization of fertilizers, significant increase in groundwater table, 39% increase in fishing.

Institute of Rural Management Anand did a study on the effectiveness of the project. Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University is doing a study. Mission Kakatiya Official Website University of Michigan study

TIROS 3 was a spin-stabilized meteorological satellite. It was the third in a series of Television Infrared Observation Satellites. TIROS 3 was launched on July 12, 1961, by a Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida; the spacecraft functioned nominally until January 22, 1961. The satellite orbited the Earth once every 98 minutes, at an inclination of 47.9°. Its perigee was 742 kilometers and apogee was 812 kilometers; the satellite was in the form of 107 cm in diameter and 56 cm high. The top and sides of the spacecraft were covered with 9000 1- by 2-cm silicon solar cells. TIROS 3 was equipped with two independent television camera subsystems for taking cloudcover pictures, plus a two-channel low-resolution radiometer, an omnidirectional radiometer, a five-channel infrared scanning radiometer. All three radiometers were used for measuring radiation from its atmosphere; the satellite spin rate was maintained between 8 and 12 rpm by use of five diametrically opposed pairs of small, solid-fuel thrusters.

The satellite spin axis could be oriented to within 1- to 2-deg accuracy by use of a magnetic control device consisting of 250 cores of wire wound around the outer surface of the spacecraft. The interaction between the induced magnetic field in the spacecraft and the earth's magnetic field provided the necessary torque for attitude control; the flight control system optimized the performance of the solar cells and TV cameras and protected the five-channel infrared radiometer from prolonged exposure to direct sunlight. The spacecraft performed until August 1961, when the scanning radiometer began to fail. Performance was sporadic until January 23, 1962, it was deactivated on February 28, 1962. NOAA in space. NOAA Department of Eaarth, Ocean & Atmosphere - Tiros 3. Florida State University