Along with the global Climate change, the air quality has attracted a great attention from scientists and governments, especially, the atmospheric components, which not only have an impact on the local environment but also have a potential feedback on the global climate change. Recently, the satellite remote sensing, as a new-technical tool for the atmospheric science, plays an important role in monitoring the atmosphere. Here, the status, the progress and the prospective of the international and domestic atmospheric satellites are reviewed in detail, mainly focusing on the aerosols, the trace gases, and the greenhouse gases. In addition, the progress of the occultation and the limb observations of space-based remote sensing is also discussed.

satellite  /  atmospheric components  /  remote sensing