A New Global Database of Lunar Impact Craters >1–2 km: 1. Crater Locations and Sizes, Comparisons With Published Databases, and Global Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a new, global database of lunar impact craters, estimated to be a complete census of all craters with diameters larger than 1–2 km. The database contains over 2 million craters, making it larger in number than any previously published lunar effort by more than a factor of 10. Of those craters, 1.3 million have diameters ≥1 km, approximately 83,000 are ≥5 km, and 6,972 craters are ≥20 km. How the database was constructed along with the reliability of features is described in detail. Comparisons are made with past published databases, demonstrating good agreement for crater size and location. An ellipticity analysis is conducted, illustrating there is no dominant direction for elliptical crater orientation based on location, diameter range, or ellipticity amount, consistent with randomness for craters ≥10 km. A spatial density analysis is described, comparing the spatial density of small versus large craters, and numerous observations about the nonuniformity of the size distributions of craters across the Moon are made. The spatial density is also used in a discussion about kilometer‐scale secondary impact craters and clearly shows that they dominate the crater population in some areas of the lunar surface. This paper presents just a tiny sample of the scientific investigations that could be done with this new crater database.