A novel flow-visualization/digital-image-analysis technique to obtain quantitative information on individual mono-dispersed silica-sand particle motions in a wind-generated turbulent boundary-layer has been developed and implemented. The technique involves recording particle trajectories, which have been illuminated with a strobed plane of light generated via a He-Ne laser, on 35 mm black and white film with a 35 mm SLR camera, converting the negatives into 512 × 512 digital images, enhancing the images via Fast Fourier Transforms, extracting 'dashed' particle lines and then linking the lines together to reconstruct the particle trajectory. The result is a Lagrangian description of the particle path of flight, obtained with the aid of the basic principles of computer vision/artificial intelligence. © 1990 Springer-Verlag.