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

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 distribution (GSD) data. Here we present PlanetGSD 1.0, the first standardized and unified cross-planetary GSD database. It comprises 6,527 measurements from Earth (4,419 samples, 20 geomorphic settings), the Moon (379 samples, 8 missions), and Mars (1,729 rover-derived estimates, 4 landing areas), covering seven orders of magnitude in grain size (0.0001 – 600 mm). The traditional textural fractions have been transferred into a unique parameter set (μ, D_c, n) derived from the unified GSD (UGSD) function (median R² = 0.988), with quality metrics, georeferenced metadata, site-level Weibull statistics, and open-source analysis codes. Technical validation confirms high fitting quality across all samples (97.8 % with R² > 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 (Zhang, 2026) under 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.