A particle measurement system and method of operation thereof are described. The system and method render a characteristic for a set of particles measured while passing through a measurement volume. The system includes a source that generates a particle-laden field containing the set of particles. The system further includes a sensor that generates a raw particle data corresponding to the set particles passing through the measurement volume of the particle measurement system, where the raw particle data comprises a set of raw particle records and each of one of the raw particle records includes a particle data content. A preconditioning stage carries out a preconditioning operation on the particle data content of the set of raw particle records to render a conditioned input data. A machine learning stage processes the conditioned input data to render an output characteristic parameter value for the set of particles.