POLDER is the first global polarization sensor to detect the aerosol. From then on, great improvements have been made on polarization remote sensing of aerosol. POLDER and Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) are two typical detectors of Europe and America. Based on these detectors, lots of retrieval methods were developed. The development of POLDER, APS and their related retrieval method were arranged and analyzed. Then, polarized detection of aerosol in China, and the typical sensors, the Directional Polarimetric Camera (DPC) and the Advanced Atmosphere Multi-angle Polarization Radiometer (AMPR) were introduced. At last, the characteristics of Chinese development in polarization remote sensing were discussed.