With the accelerating pace of urbanization and the rising concept of sustainable development, studying the ecological and economic coupling of cities helps to clarify the current status of urban development, evaluates the effect of its transformation, and predicts suitable development directions, which holds significant practical importance for the sustainable development of China's society. In this study, the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) for Henan Province for the period from 2000-2020 was calculated based on MODIS satellite images. Using night light data, population grid data and PM_2.5 data, this study constructed a Remote Sensing Comprehensive Economic Index (RSCEI) to comprehensively reflect urban social and economic development status. The coupled coordination degree model of RSEI and RSCEI is constructed to analyze the ecological and economic coupling and coordination in the process of urban transformation. The study shows that: (1) RSCEI can reflect the status of urban social development throughout the entire range of social activities. Compared with the traditional luminous remote sensing method, the development difference reflected by it in the less developed areas is more obvious; (2) From 2000 to 2020, the ecological environment quality in Henan Province showed a trend of "initial improvement, subsequent degradation, and eventual recovery". The ecological environment quality of the eastern and western regions is better than that in the central region; (3) From 2000 to 2020, the economic development level of central urban areas in Henan Province is gradually higher than that of urban fringe areas.The RSCEI of cities dominated by primary industry shows a transition process of decreasing and then increasing; the proximity of cities dominated by secondary and tertiary industries to economically developed cities is conducive to urban socio-economic development; (4) The coupling coordination degree of Henan Province encountered a bottleneck stage in the transition and development in about 2005, and the adjustment of the industrial structure led to a continuous decrease in the degree of coupling coordination and the coupling coordination degree began to show a rising trend after 2015, indicating that the new industrial structure is favourable to the development of the city and its social and economic development. trend, indicating that the new industrial structure is favourable to the coordinated development of ecological quality and socio-economy in Henan Province. The RSCEI proposed in this study fills the gap in the research field of urban eco-economic coupling coordination degree, which lacks a spatial index that can reflect the development level from the whole process of urban development, and provides a new index of remote sensing reference for the study of urban sustainable development.