Conception of the development of space oceanology in Russia from 1996 to 2015

The economic, scientific, geopolitical, defence and ecological interests of Russia, and progress in the development of remote methods, together with t he increased cost of exploitation of Russia's research fleet and the forced reduction of the latter, strongly dictate the need for an accelerated deve lopment of studies of the ocean from space. The paper describes the bases f or the conception of the development of such studies from 1996 to 2015 and presents a three-stage programme ending with the creation of the Russian oc eanological satellite system (ROSS). This conception relies upon spacecraft of the 'Meteor-3' and 'Resurs-Arktika' type, traditional methods of remote sensing and promising national developments.