Occasionally, extended outages occur at deep ocean moored buoys because of an lengthy period of bad weather or a lack of Coast Guard resources to provide transportation for servicing. In these cases, an Air-Deployed, Self-Moored, Expendable (ADSMEX) buoy could be a “gap filler” until the permanent, moored buoy is repaired. A prototype ADSMEX buoy was deployed 60 miles south of Mobile, Alabama in January 2003 near National Data Buoy Center moored buoy station 42040. Wind direction, speed, sea level pressure, air and sea surface temperature were compared between the two buoys to assess the quality of the ADSMEX data. When differences in sensor elevation are accounted for, the comparison agrees within operational quality standards.