Spatial Pattern Characteristics of Aerosol Optical Depth in a Region Based on Spatial Autocorrelation

In this paper,we employ some geostatistics methods including Moran’s I,Moran scatter plot,LISA cluster map and bivariate spatial autocorrelation to study regional spatial autocorrelation and the pattern of aerosol optical depth.Hubei Province is taken as a case study,its spatial autocorrelation degree,the scale of autocorrelation,local spatial agglomeration and spatial coupling features of aerosol optical depth and its impact factors during 2003-2008 were analyzed.The results were as follows: ① The spatial distribution of aerosol optical depth in Hubei Province shows a remarkable level of spatial autocorrelation,the scale of autocorrelation is about 400 km;② There are 2 types of spatial agglomeration area which are high-high and low-low,the areas with high value of aerosol optical depth are distributed mainly over Wuhan Metropolitan and Jianghan plain,and the areas with low value are located in mountain areas of western Hubei Province;③ The degree and pattern of spatial autocorrelation were temporally stable in a comparison between the years 2003-2008;④ Elevation and forest coverage are negatively autocorrelated to aerosol optical depth,the degree of spatial coupling is greater than the population density and total value of industrial output,which are negatively autocorrelated with the aerosol optical depth.