Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is essential for plant photosynthesis and carbon cycle, and is also important for meteorological and environmental monitoring. To advance China’s disaster and environmental monitoring capabilities, the HJ-1A/B satellites have been placed in Earth orbit. One of their environmental monitoring objectives is the study of PAR. We simulated direct solar, scattered and environment radiation between 400 and 700 nm under different atmospheric parameters (solar zenith angle, atmospheric water vapor, atmospheric ozone, aerosol optical thickness, surface elevation and surface albedo), and then established a look-up table between these input parameters and PAR. Based on the look-up table, we used HJ-1A/B aerosol and surface albedo outputs to derive the corresponding PAR. Validation of inversed instantaneous and observed PAR values using HJ-1 Heihe experimental data had a root mean square error of 25.2 W m^?2, with a relative error of 5.9%. The root mean square error for accumulated daily PAR and observed values was 0.49 MJ m^?2, with a relative error of 3.5%. Our approach improved significantly the computational efficiency, compared with using directly radiation transfer equations. We also studied the sensitivity of various input parameters to photosynthetically active radiation, and found that solar zenith angle and atmospheric aerosols were sensitive PAR parameters. Surface albedo had some effect on PAR, but water vapor and ozone had minimal impact on PAR.