  The interactions between particles in particulate systems are organized in
`force networks', mesoscale features that bridge between the particle scale and
the scale of the system as a whole. While such networks are known to be crucial
in determining the system wide response, extracting their properties,
particularly from experimental systems, is difficult due to the need to measure
the interparticle forces. In this work, we show by analysis of the data
extracted from simulations that such detailed information about interparticle
forces may not be necessary, as long as the focus is on extracting the most
dominant features of these networks. The main finding is that a reasonable
understanding of the time evolution of force networks can be obtained from
incomplete information such as total force on the particles. To compare the
evolution of the networks based on the completely known particle interactions
and the networks based on incomplete information (total force each grain) we
use tools of algebraic topology. In particular we will compare simple measures
defined on persistence diagrams that provide useful summaries of the force
network features.
