The University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez recently completed an alliance with Pennsylvania’s Kutztown University. The alliance includes the creation of a joint Global MBA program, in which students from both institutions will take courses in different parts of the world. In addition, it encompases the exchange of students and of technological, library, and cultural resources. As a part of these exchanges, a student from Kutztown participated in a research cruise conducted by UPRM’s Marine Sciences Departament.

David Pecora, the exchange student, joined several UPRM faculty and graduate students on board the Chapman Research Vessel during August 11-18, 2003. This research cruise is part of a NASA-funded project.

The researchers used a new and valuable instrument, called Undulating Underwater Oceanographic Data Acquisition System, during this trip. According to Dr. Fernando Gilbes, Director of the CoHemis Center, this sensor is designed to measure the color of oceanic waters, from which the concentración of clorophil-a is inferred. The latter is a parameter related to the accumulation of important one-celled organisms known as phitoplancton. By means of the aforementioned instrument, complemented by others of a similarly advanced technology, the team analyzed the discharges or mass liberation from the Orinoco River which form rings of water or swirls.

"The most important feature of this cruise is that a set of instruments capable of measuring chemica, physical and biological parameters, as well as their interactions, such as bio-optical and geo-chemical properties of water were used for the first time in this context. The results will help to understand the behavior of the swirls and their consequenced in the oceanography of the Caribbean," stated Dr. Gilbes, who es also a distinguished expert in the application of satellite images to the study of water bodies and the validation of its results by means of instruments such as the one mentioned above.

This project, whose principal investigator is Dr. Roy Armstrong, belongs to the Tropical Center for Earth and Space Studies, directed by professor Rafael Fernandez-Sein. The other participating faculty are doctors Jorge Corredor, José M. Lopez, Ernesto Otero, Jorge Capella, Fernando Gilbes and professor Julio Morell. They are assisted by graduate students Alvaro Cabrera, Milton Muñoz, Miguel Canals, Ángel Dieppa, Ana Lozada, Yaritza Rivera, Lumarie Perez, and Ramon Lopez.

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