This paper aims at discussing the roles of remote sensing on driving the development of Earth System Science and the major application domains based on domestic and foreign remote sensing cases. Remote sensing has led to the development of the research on global change, making human beings being capable of exploring the future of the life on earth with a new perspective. Remote sensing has also driven the transformation of Earth Science from qualitative analysis to quantitative development, from description to further analysis, from single site to regional application with multiple temporal and spatial scales. As a result, it leads to the appearance of many emerging cross-disciplines. Remote sensing is an application-driven subject, with numerous application fields after many years of development. However, different countries in the world have different priorities, which are dependent on their own national conditions. For China, safeguarding national global interests, rapid response to disasters and assessment after disasters, independent supervision from the third party and safeguarding national defense security are the major applications. Remote Sensing data consistency is of crucial importance in order to allow for time series comparison analysis and anomaly detection, which is recognized as the core of quantitative remote sensing and also the basis for driving remote sensing applications to a deeper level continually.