The invention relates to a GIS fault diagnosis method based on a sound intensity cloud picture. The method is characterized by comprising the following steps: (1) arranging equally-spaced measure points at a GIS busbar tube and switch equipment, orderly scanning all measure points through a handheld annular sound pressure sensor array with five pairs of sensors, thereby obtaining sound pressure signals of the GIS at the busbar tube and the switch equipment at different working conditions; (2) computing the sound pressure signals obtained by five pairs of sensors in the step (1) to obtain a sound intensity value at each pair of sensors, and finally obtaining the 5*N sound intensity matrix, wherein the N is the amount of the measure point; and (3) performing cubic spline interpolation on theobtained sound intensity matrix to obtain the entire sound intensity cloud picture at the GIS busbar tube and the switch equipment, and then converting the color cloud picture into a gray picture. The live line detection can be realized, the entire sound radiation characteristic of the GIS is acquired, the judgment is accurate, and the measurement difficulty can be reduced.