…Wherein we’ll learn about the LISST-Holo and what else happened in the late 2000’s!

(Part VIII can be found here: https://www.sequoiasci.com/article/the-history-of-sequoia-part-viii/)

At the PiE 2008 meeting, one of the presentations was by a young scientist from the UK – George Graham. He showed results from a holographic camera developed by Dr. Alex Nimmo Smith at University of Plymouth. The particle images looked so cool that Sequoia reached out to Alex after PiE to hear if he had licensed his technology. Alex called back almost immediately, despite having received the email at 2 am UK time – with small kids he was up anyway! This led to Sequoia acquiring a license in 2009 for manufacture of the LISST-Holo from University of Plymouth. The LISST-Holo started shipping in late 2010. The LISST-Holo2 introduced in 2018 simplified the use of the instrument and increased the sampling rate by a factor of ~100. Today, the LISST-Holo or LISST-Holo2 is used for applications ranging from frazil ice studies over algae/plankton/flocculation studies to aeolian sand transport on beaches.

Several other instruments appeared in the late 2000’s and in 2010: The LISST-StreamSide and the LISST-Portable with a touch panel display have been mentioned in previous posts. The LISST-STOKES was a one-off custom instrument designed for researchers at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in FL interested in measuring the so-called Stokes vector ( https://www.oceanopticsbook.info/view/light-and-radiometry/polarization-stokes-vectors ). The LISST-SL was upgraded to a version that had a touch panel display on the topside power box, like the LISST-Portable. This facilitated operation without a laptop. The LISST-Hydro, LISST-Infinite and LISST-StreamSide were all upgraded to versions that featured ultrasonic cleaning as users were attempting to deploy these instruments in the field for extended periods of time without maintenance.

In Part X we’ll learn about the LISSTs and their use during the Deepwater Horizon accident in 2010.