Grain size analysis is one of the main sediment research contents.It has critical significance and comprehensive application in identifying source background,studying sedimentary environment,and inferring climate change,etc.In the last 60 years with the development of desert science in China,grain size analysis has been widely used in revealing characteristics of grain size of the main desert and various kinds of dunes in China,in the prevention and control of desertification as well as the reconstruction of the ancient environment.Nonetheless,grain size analysis in China has some shortages,for example,the test method need to be improved,and the meaning of the indication parameters is not clear enough.Additionally,the issues such as the lack of system coupling model of sedimentary environment and limited spatiotemporal extension in sediment research should be aroused attention.The future researches should focus on expanding the spatial-temporal range of the particle size study,clearing the significance of the parameters and combining it with other sediment indicators to construct the system coupling model so as to realize multi angle and multi dimension analysis of desert grain size and to make particle size analysis play a more important role in the study of the desert in China.