Since the early 1960s, multispectral imagery has been served as the data source for earth observational remote sensing (RS) in the last thirty years; the advancement of sensor technology had made it accessible to colleting hundreds continues spectral bands-hyperspectral RS. Hyperspectral RS (HRS) is a new technique for observing the earth, which is different from the multispectral RS because of several hundreds of contiguous spectral bands. With a long history of development, HRS is widely used currently. This review details the development of HRS, data processing, characteristics, imaging mode of hyperspectral sensors and its applications, such as detecting and identifying the surface, monitoring agriculture and forest status, environmental studies, and military surveillance, etc.