大规模的火山灰云既会引起全球气候和环境系统的巨大变化，又会威胁航空安全。卫星遥感技术能够快速准确地获取大范围的空间变化信息，实现对火山灰云发生、扩散状况的识别和预警。首先阐述了火山灰云的光谱特征和常用的卫星图像类型；然后从紫外吸收法、模式识别法、分裂窗量温差和改进型分裂窗量温差算法方面系统地介绍了火山灰云的识别方法；最后对国内现有的基于卫星图像的火山灰云的研究进行了评述，并对其发展趋势进行了总结和讨论。

Large-scale volcanic ash cloud could not only cause great changes in the global climate and environmental system, but also form a threat to aviation safety. Satellite remote sensing can quickly and accurately acquire the space change information in a large range. So it can implement the identification and early-warning of appearance and diffusion of volcanic ash cloud. Firstly, the spectral characteristics of volcanic ash cloud and the types of common satellite images are described.Then, the identification methods of volcanic ash cloud are presented systematically in the aspects of ultraviolet absorption, pattern recognition, split-window temperature difference and improved split-window temperature difference algorithms. Finally, the current study of volcanic ash cloud based on satellite images in China is reviewed and its trend is summarized and discussed.