Measurements during Hurricane Frances (get the full paper, PDF 1.9MB) using Lagrangian floats revealed the processes responsible for air-sea exchange of gasses at very high wind speeds. The cartoon shows the processes and rates for O2 gas transfer (mmol m-2 s-1) during the hurricane force winds (30-55 m/s) of Hurricane Frances . Breaking waves, plotted roughly to scale in the figure, create a near-surface bubble layer. These bubbles are swept downward by the large eddies of the 40m thick turbulent mixed layer, compress and dissolve at 10-20m depth, thereby injecting O2 at about 60 mmol m-2 s-1. Intense shear-driven mixing to 120m, brings up O2 rich water from the subsurface maximum contributing about 40 mmol m-2 s-1. These two fluxes supersaturate the mixed layer by about 5%. A bubble-mediated surface efflux of about 40 mmol m-2 s-1 partially relieves the supersaturation and results in a near-surface O2 deficit layer. The net result is to increase the O2 concentration by about 10 mmol kg-1.