The establishment of a surface radiation climatology is an essential contribution to under standing the present climate of the Earth.In order to acquire the required global coverage data with adequate spatial and temporal resolution, the use of satellite information is indispensable.In this paper, following the brief summary of the main achievements of the satellite observation research on the radiation budget of the Earth-atmosphere system, the review is focused on the developments, existing problems and prospects about the satellite retrieval of shortwave,longwave and net radiation fluxes at the surface.