Infrared limb sounding technique can detect many species of trace gases; it is an important method forth remote observation of the middle and upper atmosphere of the Earth. The development process of infrared limb sounding and its applications are reviewed in this study to make people focus on limb observation technology and to promote the technology’s development in China. This study focuses on eight infrared limb sounders, namely, LRIR, LIMS, SAMS, ISAMS, CLAES, MIPAS, HIRDLS, and TES, and introduces the characteristics of these instruments and their detectable species in chronological order. The inversion algorithms of infrared limb sounding are also described. Lastly, the applications of these limb sounders are summarized. Since 1975, after more than 40 years of development, the detection capability, refrigeration technology, forward model, and inversion algorithm mofinfrared limb sounders have significantly improved. Currently, these instruments can detect numerous species and have high inversion accuracy, long in-orbit life, and broad application scope. The applications of infrared limb sounding are divided into four parts, namely, detection of trace gas, cloud and aerosol, gravity wave, polar vortex, and the non-local thermodynamic equilibrium effect, especially its outstanding contributions to O3 and its related trace gas detection.The development of infrared limb sensors has provided a rich dataset of global coverage atmosphere profile. Infrared limb sensors play an irreplaceable role in studying the stratosphere ozone, polar ozone loss, and the ozone chemical reaction mechanism with stratospheric clouds and aerosols. However, being affected by clouds and aerosols, the limb detection range hardly reaches the lower troposphere. Infrared limb instruments also have a short on-orbit life. Data fusion technology should be investigated to form a long sequence of observed data for environment and climate change research.

infrared limb sounders;trace gases;forward model;inversion algorithm;application