Abstract: Acoustic emission technology is a recognized method for large scale atmospheric tank bottom online detection, whose results are affected by many factors, such as the height of sensors, the frequency range of the sensor, the background noise and the sound velocity, etc. In this paper, according to two different arrangements with sensor height, respectively, the influence of the height of sensors on AE detection is analyzed by the broken-lead test and corrosion detection. The results show that there is no obvious difference between results of 300 mm and 600 mm, the error meets engineering requirements. The higher sensor strategy makes it easier to collect the signal with little attenuation which helps the long distance detection. Conversely, the lower strategy is good for the collection of the signal with obvious attenuation.