The atmospheric water vapor retrieval technology based on the 940nm nearinfrared (NIR) absorption region and near window bands began in the 1980s. The algorithm of water vapor derivations is mainly based on the absorption difference theory. The characteristics and problems of this algorithm developed by several researchers are summarized, and some experiments on NIR water vapor retrieval are conducted by using the China’s satellite data. Of these results, the smallest error is 0.04 g/cm2. This provides a compact basis for the operational algorithm developing of total precipitation water (TPW) over land based on the future FY3/MERSI.