As an important agricultural production zone of commercial and economic crop, Northeast China is susceptible to suffering from precipitation anomaly and drought risk. With global climate change and regional reduction of precipitation reducing, droughts happened much more frequently in Northeast China. At present, only a few studies paid attention to droughts in Northeast China, and inconsistent results was showed in these studies. Additionally, most of these studies tried to detect the spatiotemporal variation or to explore the effects of drought. However, few researchs have identified the regionalization of drought in Northeast China. Based on the monthly mean air temperature and precipitation data from 1961 to 2013, the temporal and spatial patterns of drought were analyzed by applying the S-mode PCA to the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) estimated on 12-month timescales. The result showed that during the period of 1961 to 2013, drought in Northeast China tended to be gradually severe. In 1961─1999, droughts happened at a lower frequency, shorter duration and lesser damage than that in 2000─2012. Two consecutive drought periods occurred in the years of 2000─2002 and 2007─2008. According to the spatial distribution of drought in Northeast China in the past half century, the driest period was from 2000 to 2010, which affected the largest drought area and exhibited highest drought frequency, especially in the central and south part, with a respectively drought frequency of 42.86%and 33.34%. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were applied to regionalize the drought of Northeast China, and eight different drought sub-regions were identified. Our results could make contribution to monitoring and assessment of drought. And it could also be further used in the alleviation of the loss resulting from droughts and guidelines of water resource management and regional agricultural production.%东北地区是我国重要的粮食作物和经济作物的生产基地，易受异常降水和干旱的影响。随着全球气候变暖，东北地区温度增高、降水量减少，干旱事件发生频繁。但是目前国内对东北地区干旱的研究较少、结果存在分歧，且主要关注干旱的时空变化特征和干旱的影响，较少研究关注干旱的区划研究。依据1961─2013年东北地区月平均气温和降水资料，运用标准化降水蒸发指数（SPEI）分析了东北地区的干旱趋势，并根据主成分分析和聚类分析研究东北地区干旱的时空特征，研究结果表明：东北地区在1961─2012年期间干旱发生频率呈现波动增加的趋势；在1961─1999年期间，东北地区干旱发生频率低、持续时间短，干旱危害较小；而2000年以后，东北地区干旱事件频发，干旱持续时间长、强度大，出现了2000─2002和2007─2008年2个连续干旱期。从空间分布来看，2000─2010年是东北地区干旱发生频率和影响范围最大的时期，尤其是东北地区的中部和西部，其干旱频率分别达到42.86%和33.34%。根据主成分析和聚类分析的结果将东北划分为8个干旱相似区。研究结果对于实现东北干旱监测、评估，为减轻该区域干旱损失，指导区域水资源管理和农业生产具有重要的现实意义。
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