According to the theory of colorimetric thermometry, the influences of center wavelength, wavelength bandwidth and solid angle on response speed and the precision of the sensor was analyzed systematically, and the operating parameters for transient high temperature measurement system were determined. A calculation method based on photoelectric conversion coefficient, and higher and lower operating wavelength of the colorimetric temperature sensor was given. At the optimal operating temperature, calibration experiment was conducted in a high temperature blackbody furnace. Based on the experimental results, the operating parameters of the sensor were determined and the colorimetric temperature response was calculated. The results show that the errors between the calculated response and the experiment one are less than 1%. By using the colorimetric temperature sensor, the temperature response of fuel air explosion field was detected and the variations of temperature with time and space in detonation field were obtained.