Abstract: In order to study the influence of detection wavelength drift on visibility measurement,based on the definition of Koschmieder empirical formula and the aerosol transmittance of 400 nm~1 100 nm waveband measured in experiment, the influence of detection wavelength drift on visibility measurement was analyzed. The results show that the relative error of visibility measurement is related to detection wavelength, range of detection wavelength drift and aerosol extinction characteristics. The relative error of visibility measurement increases with the range of detection wavelength drift in linearity. With the increasing range of detection wavelength drift, the linearly increasing rate of the relative error in visibility measurement at each wavelength is different. Under the same range of detection wavelength drift, the visibility measurement error is different by using the different detection wavelengths. In a certain atmospheric environment, the relative error of visibility measurement caused by detection wavelength drift can be reduced obviously by using the light of a specific center wavelength with small drift as the detecting light.