Abstract:  Ocean sound speed profile (SSP) is the key factor affecting acoustic propagation. The acquisition of SSPs in real time with high precision is meaningful for underwater activities. By means of the remote sensing method, the sea surface data could be obtained in near-real time. Typically, the subsurface fields are correlated with the sea surface parameters. Thus, the SSPs could be obtained by means of satellite remote sensing. In this paper, the history as well as the current research over the reconstruction of subsurface fields by means of sea surface data is introduced. Then two methods to reconstruct the SSPs with sea surface data, including the linear regression method using the empirical orthogonal function, and the self-organizing method based on the big data theory, are described in detail in the paper.