Under the background of global warming,magnitude and frequency of algal blooms in inland lakes have increased globally. Due to time consuming,expensive and not truly representative of traditional water monitoring methods, the use of remote sensing to measure chlorophyll-a from space has been a highly successful technique for mapping algal blooms distribution on a global basis. The principles and methods for remote sensing of algal blooms in inland lakes were introduced,and then a summary of application of common satellite sensors in monitoring algal blooms was made,with the comparison of advantages and disadvantages of various sensors and inversion models. The existing problem and prediction of future research tendency in lake algae monitoring were proposed.