
STANDARDIZED. COMPREHENSIVE. RAPID.
To understand how microplastics break down, move through the oceans and freshwater systems and collect on coastlines, researchers and community monitoring groups must be able to quantify a robust set of particle size parameters.
Saturna is a portable, standardized imaging and illumination device that plugs in to your computer and syncs with Mariana, our web-based data analysis portal, or a standalone analysis web application to rapidly characterize and quantify visible microplastic particles.
Use it to collect a robust set of size, colour and categorical metrics for visible microplastic samples (>400μm) like those collected from Manta trawls, neuston nets, beach quadrat samples and community studies.

FEATURES
Highly standardized built-in LED lighting system provides consistent and reproducible lighting for your microplastic samples
Compatible with any Windows PC and operated using our Mariana data portal or standalone analysis application
Provides physical size and colour data for all microplastic particles imaged
Computer pattern recognition and sizing algorithms calculate 11 discrete size calculations for every particle
Predictive colour models calculate repeatable and standardized average colour calculations for each particle
Compare your samples over spatial areas using our Mariana data portal for further insight and sample analysis
SMART TECHNOLOGY
The data below is provided for every particle imaged:
Maximum Width (mm)
2D Surface Area (mm2)
Convex Surface Area (mm2)
Perimeter (mm)
Convex Perimeter (mm)
Bounding Box Width (mm)
Bounding Box Height (mm)
Aspect Ratio
Circularity
Convexity
Solidity
Average HSV Colour Value
Average LAB Colour Value
Average BGR Colour Value
AI Colour Prediction and Confidence Interval (Using 15 common color keys)


SPECIFICATIONS
Use to collect high quality physical data for visible particles larger than 400μm in size
Integrated 8MP Sony IMX179 CMOS Imaging sensor provides high resolution data
Integrated ~4000k neutral white LED array and light-blocking shroud provide highly standardized microplastics images with consistent lighting for comparative size and colour analysis across time, location and external lighting conditions
Included QR Code background sheet provides accurate particle sizing reference for physical analysis computer vision algorithms
Use Saturna through our Mariana data portal or standalone application with any Windows PC
Waterproof hard case included for easy transport into the field (26cm x 20cm x 12cm)
APPLICATIONS
Use Saturna on its own or with our Community Science Toolkit!


SATURNA IMAGING SYSTEM
Use Saturna on its own as a portable research tool to accurately analyze visible microplastic particles such as those from Manta trawls, net tows and ingestion studies.
MICROPLASTICS COMMUNITY SCIENCE TOOLKIT
Use our Toolkit to learn about microplastic pollution, collect samples from your local sandy beach(es), upload and evaluate the data with Saturna and contribute the data to our Mariana Data Portal.