Abstract: The accurate prediction of tropical cyclones has significant social and economic benefits, so it is an important issue for scientists to study and pay attention to. In order to fully and comprehensively understand the variation law of tropical cyclones, timely discover the tropical cyclones in the occurrence and development stage, and realize more accurate forecast, ocean observation of tropical cyclones is essential. With the development of technology, the observation of tropical cyclones shows the trend of from point to surface and from surface to comprehensive observation. In this paper, the application progress of tropical cyclone ocean observation is summarized from the aspects of satellite observation, airborne observation, ocean mobile observation, ocean mooring observation and comprehensive observation experiment. The above different observation platforms and means show different values and capabilities in practical application, and have their advantages and limitations. The research demands and the results of comprehensive observation experiment show that the development trend of tropical cyclone observation in the future is to carry out all-round three-dimensional network observation with land, ocean, airborne and satellite platforms and equipment to give full play to their respective advantages.