The development of passive optical remote sensing of atmospheric wind observation from satellite in abroad was reviewed in this paper.The Fabry-Perot interferometer,Michelson interferometer and Doppler asymmetric spatial heterodyne interferometer were described and so were the basic theories of three type interferometers.The single field of view was developed to dual field of view and quarter view of field.The characteristics and limitations of the three types interferometers were compared.The feature,performance and application of Wind Imaging Interferometer(WAMDII),High Resolution Doppler Imager(HRDI)and TIMED Doppler Interferometer(TIDI)in abroad were introduced.The key technologies of two-dimension space turntable, synthetic technology of fiber field of view and technique of the narrow band filter in development were analyzed.The progress of improving wind measuring accuracy,and enlarging detection scope and field of view in performance were summarized.And so were the transfer from the retrieval of wind velocity,temperature and radiant emissivity to the detection of dynamics and thermodynamics (such as gravity wave,composition density,airglow and aurora emissivity,noctilucent clouds,and ion flow density),atmospheric effective reflectivity,and phase function and scattering coefficient of aerosol.The development trend of the technology was prospected at last.