With the launch of a series of nighttime low-light remote sensing satellites, such as Defense Meteology Satellite Program (DMSP) and Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP), the application of low-light data in quantitative remote sensing has received increasing attention from researcher. However, there is still a lack of research summaries in the field of atmospheric remote sensing based on night-light data. Therefore, a comprehensive review of atmospheric remote sensing research based on nighttime low-light data in the past 20 years is presented. The progress of nighttime low-light atmospheric remote sensing research is summarized from three aspects: radiometric calibration low-light imager of low-light radiation transfer model and atmospheric parameters research based on low-light data. The application status and characteristics of low light data in atmospheric remote sensing research are also reviewed in this paper, which will provide a valuable reference for future in-depth application of night low-light data in atmospheric remote sensing.