High density polyethylene (HDPE) was widely used as rotational packaging case in the material reserve field. The chemical changes of HDPE, exposed to particular climatic conditions of tropic marine atmosphere for one year-long in Wanning Hainan, were elucidated by the attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The structural changes were studied qualitatively, mainly from the polymeric chain breaking, branching and oxidation to distinguish the degradation profile. The variations of crystallinity & carbonyl index were also studied quantitatively according to the characteristic peaks intensity & area ratio. Finally, the relationships between structural changes and mechanical properties were investigated. The results showed that the polymeric chain breaking & branching play a leading role before 3 months in the aging progress. Then oxidation phenomena gradually takes place during 3~6 months. The chain branching & oxidation were predominant factors after 6 months. Nine months later, the oxidation was saturated gradually. Furthermore, the aging process is positively correlated to the temperature and irradiation. After 12 months aging, the carbonyl index increased by 112 times and crystallinity was 10% higher than before. The tensile/bending modulus deceased faster than tensile/bending strength of HDPE. The linear degree of tensile modulus and carbonyl index was 0.97. The degree of linearity of tensile strength and crystallinity calculated by feature bands (720~730 cm-1) was 0.96. It showed that the mechanical properties of HDPE can be speculated from the structural changes by ATR-FTIR.