A large depth-of-field particle image velocimeter (PIV) is designed to characterize dynamic dust environments on planetary surfaces. This instrument detects lofted dust particles, and senses the number of particles per unit volume, measuring their sizes, velocities (both speed and direction), and shape factors when the particles are large. To measure these particle characteristics in-flight, the instrument gathers twodimensional image data at a high frame rate, typically >4,000 Hz, generating large amounts of data for every second of operation, approximately 6 GB/s.