PlanetGSD 1.0: a cross-planetary grain-size distribution dataset from the Earth, the Moon, and the Mars

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Authors: Jun Zhang, Yong Li
Cited by: 1
References: 54

Abstract

Comparative studies of surface processes across planetary bodies are hindered by the lack of consistently parameterized, openly accessible soil data, especially the grain-size distributions (GSDs) data. Here we present PlanetGSD 1.0, the first standardized and unified cross-planetary GSD database. It comprises 6527 measurements from Earth (4419 samples, 20 geomorphic settings), the Moon (379 samples, 8 missions), and Mars (1729 rover-derived estimates, 4 landing areas), covering seven orders of magnitude in grain size (0.0001–600 mm). The textural fractions have been transferred into a unique parameter set ( μ , D c , n ) derived from the unified GSD (UGSD) function, accompanied by quality metrics, georeferenced metadata, site-level statistics, and open-source analysis codes. Technical validation confirms high fitting quality across all samples (97.8 % with R 2 >0.95) and robust inter-operator reproducibility for Martian image-derived measurements (coefficient of variation < 8.3 % for key parameters). The complete dataset is openly available on Figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.32362083, Zhang, 2026a) under the CC BY 4.0 license. PlanetGSD 1.0 enables robust cross-planetary comparison of regolith properties, benchmarking of simulants, and data-driven landing site assessment, establishing a foundational resource for planetary science.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Planetary Science and Exploration Astro and Planetary Science Aeolian processes and effects

Publication details

Journal / source
Earth system science data
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Volume
18
Issue
7
Pages
4983–5008
Publication date
16 July 2026
Language
EN