The first experiments on lunar laser ranging, which were carried out by Soviet and American scientists, date back to the early 1960s. Those studies refined the main parameters of the Earth–Moon system and achieved a considerable progress in solving the problems of selenodesy, astrometry, geodesy, and geophysics. The beginning of space exploration of the Moon and the planets of the Solar System gave scientists and engineers worldwide an opportunity to conduct both ground-based and space observations using laser reflectors onboard low-orbit and geodynamic satellites, space probes, and robotic rovers on the surface of the Moon and planets. Future remote and contact scientific studies of the lunar surface are expected to provide new information about the Earth–Moon system.

In this paper, seasonal and interannual upwelling variability in the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island based on wind data obtained using the QuikSCAT/SeaWinds scatterometer (1999–2009) were studied. The upwelling strength was estimated from the magnitude of the wind-induced Ekman transport directed away from the coast (upwelling index). The obtained results show that upwelling near the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island is mainly associated with summer southerly monsoon winds over the Sea of Okhotsk. In the northern and central parts of the East Sakhalin shelf, upwelling is observed in July–August. In the southern part of the region, off the coast of Cape Patience, it begins in August and continues until September. The variability in the duration and strength of upwelling is due to regional features of the wind forcing. Ekman transfer and pumping contribute approximately equally to the upwelling generation. This shows that upwelling associated with the spatial inhomogeneity of the wind stress vorticity can affect the decrease in water temperature off the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island. The seasonal variability of the southern monsoon winds favorable for the development of upwelling is largely determined by the summer Okhotsk anticyclone (atmospheric center of high pressure over the Sea of Okhotsk). The latter is characterized by significant interannual variability. Its interannual variations correlate well with the upwelling strength near the eastern coast of the island. Upwelling decreases in years with negative atmospheric pressure anomalies in the Okhotsk anticyclone, while enhanced upwelling is associated with a well-developed positive anomaly of this regional high-pressure center.

Space methods for remote sensing of the Earth began to develop almost immediately after the first launches of artificial Earth satellites. As early as in 1962, the first Soviet satellites of the Kosmos series were developed, which played an important role in the study of physical processes in the Earth’s atmosphere and the World Ocean, as well as in the treatment of many scientific, economic, and defense problems. In subsequent years, these studies were continued on satellites of the Okean, Meteor–Priroda, and Interkosmos series, as well as on the Salyut-6 and Salyut-7 space stations and the Priroda module of the Mir station.

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the archive of radar images of Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) and Radarsat-1,2 for the warm period of 2009–2012. For the first time surface manifestations of submesoscale eddies are mapped in the White Sea.The areas of persistent eddy activity as well as eddy characteristics are determined using the statistical analysis. According to in situ observations some of the observed small eddies are generated due to a strong tidal flow around the underwater hills. A significant part of the observed eddies have been detected in the straits and near hydrological fronts, which indicates their important contribution to the processes of water exchange and mixing.

The results of the study of the condition of the territory and waste deposits of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill using radar and optical satellite data are presented. The Earth’s surface deformations in the area of waste deposits are analyzed using the method of differential radar interferometry applied to the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 L-band radar satellite data. By processing the C-band radar data from the Sentinel-1B satellite using the method of multitemporal SBAS interferometric measurements, two blocks are found in the study area, one of which is rising and the other one of which is subsiding. The difference between deformations over the period from 2017 to 2020 reached 17–19 mm. A significant correlation in determining waste water content between radar-backscatter intensity measurements (Sentinel-1B satellite) and optical data (Sentinel-2A/B satellites) using the NDWI water index is revealed.

The features of large wildfires that occurred in Russia in 2001–2020 were studied on the base of satellite monitoring data. The contribution of the regions of the European part of Russia, as well as the Ural, Siberian, and Far East federal districts, to СО, СО2, and PM2.5 emissions due to wildfires is estimated. It is established that the contribution of the Siberian Federal District into total emission volumes due to wildfires was prevailing from 2011 to 2017, and in some years it reached 60%. It is revealed that in 2020 wildfire emission volumes in the territory of the Far East Federal District exceeded 55% of the all-Russian emissions. An analysis of the features of anomalous wildfires is performed taking into account weather and climate factors. The relationship between large wildfires and weather and climatic factors, including blocking anticyclones, has been revealed. Using OMI (Aura satellite) data, it has been found that an aerosol plume due to large wildfires in Russia can spread over long distances and reach other continents.

Computational schemes for forest vegetation identification on airborne hyperspectral images are implemented using the feature of the red edge in the transition region from the chlorophyll absorption band to the maximum spectral reflectance of vegetation and taking into account integral brightness values of the detected spectra. Based on the proposed models, pixel-by-pixel and textural identification of forest vegetation of different types and ages is carried out within a window of a certain size. New possibilities for the identification of the selected types of objects are shown when comparing the obtained results with the data of ground-based forest-taxation surveys of the test area.

At a meeting in Moscow on January 18–21, 1971, delegations from the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the United States’ NASA agreed upon the main directions of cooperation in space and a procedure for exchanging the findings of space research. The final document of the meeting was taken as a basis for the preparation of the international Agreement between the Soviet Union and the United States “On Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes” (Moscow, May 24, 1972). This Agreement allowed scientists and specialists of the Soviet Union and the United States to successfully carry out joint research for many years in the fields of space meteorology; the study of the natural environment; exploration of the near-Earth space, the Moon, and planets; and space biology and medicine, as well as to implement a joint manned experimental flight—the “Apollo–Soyuz Test Project” (ASTP)—for development of space-rescue methods.

In the period of intense ice melting, algorithms retrieving sea-ice concentration from satellite microwave radiometry (SMR) data may fail to detect vast regions of floating ice. Late-stage melting is characterized by an abundance of melt ponds on ice, resulting in considerable underestimation of sea-ice concentration. Also, during melting, ice concentration decreases and ice breccias disintegrate; therefore the size of ice floes decreases. In winter, at river mouths in the shelf seas, ice is formed with a heavy load of terrigenous sediments carried by the rivers. A dirty ice surface becomes visible in summer when snow cover melts off. SMR techniques fail to adequately determine dirty ice concentration. The paper considers the impact of ice melt, concentration, floe size, and dirtiness on the determination of sea ice extent in the Arctic in summer using the ARTIST Sea Ice (ASI) algorithm. Our study shows that the portion of ice cover left undetected by the SMR technique may range in different years 5.7 to 23.3% of the total Arctic sea ice extent.

Comparative estimation of long-term trends in the variability of the largest Atlantic upwellings (Canary and Benguela) has been carried out in this paper. Satellite data on the sea surface temperature and three surface wind datasets prepared by different scientific groups have been used. The difference in the calculated absolute vertical velocities due to alongshore wind drift and horizontal wind-field nonuniformity reach tens of percent. All time series demonstrate the common tendency for the intensification of the upwellings from the 1980s to the early 1990s. This confirms published materials concerning the intensification of Canary and Benguela upwellings under global warming. However, since the late 1990s, the intensification of the upwellings has nearly ceased. This proves the highly important role of the natural interdecadal climate variations in the variability of intensity of generation of upwellings during the period of regular satellite measurements.