In 1994 satellite measurements were interpreted for atmospheric gravity waves (GWs) for a first time. Now they are an important tool to derive global distributions and seasonal variations. In the presentation a short overview over different remote sensing techniques is given. Different instruments observe different portions of the GW spectrum. The restrictions which these "observational filters" imply for different scientific questions such as the efficiency of various wave sources, the vertical transport of momentum or wave dissipation are discussed. A four-year climatology deduced from SABER temperature measurements will be discussed in detail. The SABER measurements are used to constrain a global GW ray tracing experiment, which in turn can be used to study GW properties not directly addressable by measurements such as average latitudinal propagation or wind acceleration by horizontal refraction. In addition, we show how simulated observations through ECMWF resolved GWs can be used to validate the model and to identify orographic source regions. An outlook to possible future instruments and a roadmap to an almost complete coverage of the vertically propagating part of the GW spectrum will be given.