Abstract: Streamer discharge is an important stage of gas gap discharge. The mechanism, simulation and experimental researches of streamer discharge are one of the focuses of the research in the field of high voltage discharge plasma, among which the experimental study of streamer discharge is the basis of the researches on streamer discharge mechanism and simulation. However, streamer discharge has complex characteristics such as multiple temporal and spatial scales, multi-particle collisions, and multi-physics couplings, which poses great challenges to the experimental observation of streamer discharge. Aiming at the experimental observation methods and techniques of short air gap streamer discharge, this paper summarizes the related experimental methods, platforms and research progress made at home and abroad from two aspects: the short air gap streamer discharge experimental setup and the short air gap streamer discharge process observation technology. On this basis, this article discusses the key issues that need to be resolved in the current short air gap streamer discharge researches and the future development trends. We believe that the keys to the further development of experimental researches on the short air gap streamer discharge lies in 1)establishing a multi-physics simultaneous observation system with higher precision and higher temporal and spatial resolution; 2)exploring new experimental means and measurement techniques to obtain key characteristic parameters such as the average energy of electrons; and 3)thoroughly studying the digital image processing techniques to explore the deeper characteristic information contained in the optical images of discharges, so as to improve the research on the mechanism of streamer discharge.