A report on EASI (Extreme Air-Sea Interaction) buoy's encounter with Noel

The new Extreme Air-Sea Interaction (EASI) buoy

was recently developed to measure air-sea fluxes

(momentum, heat, moisture and thence enthalpy),

and supporting parameters (meteorological, wave

and oceanographic) in high wind conditions. This

summer the buoy was deployed off Jacksonville, FL

for an extended field-test. During the test, the centre

of Hurricane Noel passed within 200nm of the buoy,

putting EASI within the band of tropical storm winds.

We report here on the buoy's performance during the

storm, and present some preliminary flux and wave

data. These results will be compared with recent aircraft measurements from CBLAST.