A locomotive operation state detection method based on satellite positioning, the method comprising: installing a satellite positioning module on a locomotive, and acquiring real-time position information, speed information and direction angle information of the locomotive by analyzing satellite positioning data output by the satellite positioning module; and dividing locomotive operation states into an initial state, an invalid satellite positioning state, a low speed state and a credible speed state according to whether the positioning data is valid and according to a received speed value, wherein the credible speed state is a case when the satellite positioning is valid and a locomotive speed is not lower than a critical speed, wherein in the credible speed state, the speed information of the locomotive is taken from the satellite positioning data, the direction information of the locomotive is acquired through direction calculation A, and displacement information of the locomotive is acquired through displacement calculation A, wherein in the low speed state, the speed value in this state is taken as a reference, and the operation direction and displacement of the locomotive are calculated by means of the position change, the operation direction is acquired through direction calculation B, and the displacement is acquired through displacement calculation B, characterized in that, the specific process of the direction calculation B comprises: calculating the direction angle according to the position change; setting a linear distance △d, the current position being pos, POS0 representing the position information to be compared, an initial value being a position at the time when entering the low speed state, calculating a distance between the current pos and POS0 in real time, when the distance at the first time is larger than or equal to △d, calculating the true north direction angle of the current pos with respect to POS0, and using the direction angle as an input to acquire the up and down results by means of the direction calculation method A; at the same time, taking the current pos as new POS0, and repeating the above calculation circularly; and when the up and down results of three consecutive Δd are the same, determining that it is the current locomotive operation direction, and keeping the original operation direction unchanged in other cases. calculating the direction angle according to the position change; setting a linear distance △d, the current position being pos, POS0 representing the position information to be compared, an initial value being a position at the time when entering the low speed state, calculating a distance between the current pos and POS0 in real time, when the distance at the first time is larger than or equal to △d, calculating the true north direction angle of the current pos with respect to POS0, and using the direction angle as an input to acquire the up and down results by means of the direction calculation method A; at the same time, taking the current pos as new POS0, and repeating the above calculation circularly; and when the up and down results of three consecutive Δd are the same, determining that it is the current locomotive operation direction, and keeping the original operation direction unchanged in other cases.