 The paper provides a systematic review of satellite-based studies on surface urban heat island, SUHI, from 1972 to present. There has been an exponential increase in SUHI research since 2005, with preferences for certain geographic areas, time periods, and research foci. The most commonly used sensors are Landsat Thematic Mapper, TM, Slash Enhanced Thematic Mapper, ETM+, Slash Thermal Infrared Sensor, TIRS, and Terra Slash Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS. SUHI research has confirmed that large spatial and temporal variations are contributed by factors such as impervious surface area, vegetation cover, landscape structure, albedo, and climate. However, data and methodological limitations hinder the applications of SUHI research. Potential directions for future efforts include improving LST data quality and quantity, examining SUHI intensity, inter-annual variability, and long-term trends, scaling issues, relationship between surface and subsurface UHIs, and integrating remote sensing with field observations and numeric modeling. This article was authored by Dachung Zhou, Jingfeng Xiao, Stefania Bonifony, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.