Outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data are one of the key factors in studying the radiation balance of the earth–atmosphere system in East Asia. It is of great significance to explore the influence factors on OLR. This paper processes the data of nearly 19 years, from September 2002 to February 2022, and conducts in-depth research using the exponential smoothing method, empirical orthogonal decomposition (EOF), correlation analysis, and other methods. We found that the spatial distribution of OLR is zonal symmetry and gradually decreases with the increase of latitude. Using EOF analysis, it is found that the total variance contribution of the first four decomposed spatial features exceeds 70%, and the overall change trend of the four-time coefficients in the past 19 years all show a downward trend. OLR is positively correlated with total column water vapor (TCWV), air temperature (AT), and cloud top temperature (CTT), but negatively correlated with cloud top pressure (CTP). OLR has a similar spatial correlation distribution with TCWV and AT, while the spatial correlation between OLR and CTP is opposite to the first two parameters. In most parts of East Asia, the spatial correlation with CTT exceeds 0.8. The change in OLR value is affected by various meteorological parameters. In East Asia, the positive correlation between 30° N and 60° N is significantly affected by TCWV, AT, and CTT; and the negative correlation is more significantly affected by CTP. At 0–25° N, the positive correlation is significantly affected by CTP and CTT, while the negative correlation is significantly affected by TCWV and AT.

Outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) is a key factor to study the radiation balance of the earth–atmosphere system. It is of great significance to explore the temporal and spatial variation characteristics over the OLR value in China region and to predict its future variation trend. We investigate the characteristic distribution of OLR value over China and predict its results in time series using the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) and long short-term memory (LSTM) methods based on the OLR data by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). The Mann–Kendall (MK) mutation test was used to analyze the annual average of OLR values in China and the mutation points in the four seasons. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) is used to decompose the spatial characteristics and temporal variation of OLR values in China. The MK mutation test is used to obtain the mutation points in the three seasons of spring, summer and autumn. The cumulative variance contribution of the four modes obtained by EOF decomposition exceeds 70%, and the variance contribution of the first mode exceeds 50%. The prediction accuracy with SARIMA model is 99% and LSTM algorithm is 97%. The results of spatiotemporal analysis show that the OLR value near the equator is significantly higher than that of the north and south poles and decreases with the increase of latitude; the OLR value in spring, summer and autumn is higher than that in winter. The results of the MK test show that there are many mutation points in autumn, and the location of the mutation points cannot be determined. The mutation points in spring and summer meet the confidence interval; the first mode of EOF decomposition has a meridional structure, and the OLR value is dropped within 18 years as a whole. The spatial characteristics of modes 1 and 3 have obvious changes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Northeast China. The prediction results show that the prediction accuracy of SARIMA is higher than that of LSTM. Therefore, the results predicted by SARIMA may provide a reference for the study of the radiation balance of the earth–atmosphere system in China.