Interpreting LISST-100X measurements of particles with complex shape using digital in-line holography

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 2012-05, Vol.117 (C5), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Graham, G. W., Davies, E. J., Nimmo-Smith, W. A. M., Bowers, D. G., Braithwaite, K. M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Coastal waters; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; flocculation; Freshwater environments; Geophysics; Holography; LISST-100X; Marine; Oceanography; particle shape; Particle size; Performance assessment; Physical oceanography; Sediment transport; Suspended sediments
• ISSN: 0148-0227; 2169-9275; 2156-2202; 2169-9291
• DOI: 10.1029/2011JC007613

Measurements of suspended sediment volume concentrations, particle size and number density are routinely collected in marine and fresh‐water environments with LISST‐100X instruments to understand sediment transport, biological processes and fundamental opto‐acoustic problems. A LISST‐100X was simultaneously deployed with a novel holographic camera (holocam) in UK coastal waters to assess the performance of the laser diffraction technique when measuring natural suspensions. Volume distributions from the LISST‐100X, truncated to exclude non‐overlapping size bins with the holocam, exhibit an increase in small particles and median particle size is elevated in comparison to the holocam by 20–40%. We observe positive offsets between LISST‐100X and holocam number distributions of up to 2 orders of magnitude for particle sizes between 58–218μm, with discrepancies rising to 4 orders of magnitude for finer and coarser sizes. To explain these differences, a novel multiscale representation of particle size is used. The method quantifies individual dimensions that make up any two‐dimensional geometrical structure, it can be used as a metric for particle complexity, and offers a plausible explanation for an apparent increase in small particles (