Turbidity

The units of turbidity from a calibrated nephelometer are called Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). To some extent, how much light reflects for a given amount of particulates is dependent upon properties of the particles like their shape, color, and reflectivity. For this reason (and the reason that heavier particles settle quickly and do not contribute to a turbidity reading), a correlation between turbidity and total suspended solids (TSS) is somewhat unique for each location or situation. The most widely used measurement unit for turbidity is the FTU (Formazin Turbidity Unit). ISO refers to its units as FNU (Formazin Nephelometric Units).