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Space-based remote sensing of the Earth has become an important source of information for most civilized countries of the world. More and more users need Earth remote sensing data that help to solve many civil, military and scientific tasks. The tasks of ecological control have recently got tremendous importance among the tasks of space-based remote sensing of the Earth. It can be explained by society's concern about the rapid degradation of environment under the impact of antropogenic factors. Ecological changes are taking place not only on the local and regional, but also on the global level. The process demands serious study that cannot be carried out without the use of space technology. As we know, the scientific efforts of the countries of the West are concentrated on creating the Earth Observing System (EOS) , that is an integral part of the even greater international program MPE — Mission to the Planet Earth. The main object of the program EOS is to study different worldwide ecological changes, such as, for instance, the global warming of the climate. The problem of effective usage of space technology in the interests of ecology is also pressing and urgent for Russia. That is conditioned by the utter neglect of ecology in many regions of our country, the imperfect technologies used in industry, and by the vastness of the country's territory. Therefore, the attention of Russian scientists is now mainly focused not on the global ecological problems — first they strive for solving the tasks of ecological control on the local and regional levels, such as operational study of the regions of natural and technogenic calamities and disasters, environmental monitoring of the ecologically tense areas, etc. The Russian scientific organizations and the Russian government bodies are increasingly aware of the fact that to solve these problems it is necessary to use the space systems, which have such decisive advantages as operational receipt of information, possibility of observing the dynamic transboundary processes with high periodicity, conducting research independently of local authorities.
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