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Envisat is the largest and most ambitious earth observation spacecraft in the history of European space exploration. The Envisat spacecraft is funded by the European Space Agency, ESA, and was designed and built by Astrium. It carries a unique combination of instruments and sensors to make scientific measurements of our planet. Among the wide range of information being gathered, Envisat is looking at clouds, atmospheric temperature and composition, land temperature and topography, vegetation, flooding and fires, sea temperature and currents, global circulation, pollution and traffic, sea ice mapping and movement. Its total range of capabilities represents a significant advance over the previous generation of Earth observation spacecraft. Envisat was launched on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle on March 1st 2002, and flies in a sun-synchronous near polar obit at an inclination of 98° and an altitude of 800km, providing an orbital period of 101 minutes with a repeat cycle of 35 days.