Abstract: Black carbon is an attentive research topic in the field of global change. In this paper, the recent research on black carbon aerosol and sediment black carbon is reviewed. As we know, black carbon aerosol plays an important role in climate change and has become the second important component in green house effect. The top-of-the atmosphere (TOA)forcing is positive and the surface forcing is negative due to black carbon absorbing solar radiation. With regard to soil and sediment black carbon, scientists, according to black carbon records, have calculated the history of using fossil fuel, rebuilt fire events and estimated the relation between paleoclimate change and black carbon concentration in glacial and interglacial stages. The measuring methods of black carbon concentration are also summarized in this paper. Optical method is about a real-time measurement using aethalometer. And chemothermal oxidation methods and thermal/optical reflectance method are used for black carbon concentration based on chemical pretreatment.