Editing Particle image velocimetry (section)

===Advantages===
The method is, to a large degree, nonintrusive. The added tracers (if they are properly chosen) generally cause negligible distortion of the fluid flow.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Melling |first=A.
 |year=1997
 |title=Tracer particles and seeding for particle image velocimetry
 |journal=[[Measurement Science and Technology]]
 |volume=8 |issue=12 |pages=1406–1416
 |doi=10.1088/0957-0233/8/12/005
|bibcode = 1997MeScT...8.1406M |s2cid=250844330
 }}</ref>

Optical measurement avoids the need for [[Pitot tube]]s, hotwire [[anemometers]] or other intrusive [[Flow measurement]] probes. The method is capable of measuring an entire two-[[dimension]]al [[cross section (geometry)]] of the flow field simultaneously.

High speed [[data processing]] allows the generation of large numbers of image pairs which, on a [[personal computer]] may be analysed in [[Real-time computing|real time]] or at a later time, and a high quantity of near-continuous information may be gained.

Sub [[pixel]] displacement values allow a high degree of accuracy, since each vector is the statistical average for many particles within a particular tile. Displacement can typically be accurate down to 10% of one pixel on the image plane.