The trajectories of 8 autonomous profiling floats deployed in the Kuroshio Extension region in February 2001 are used to depict the circulation pattern at the surface and 2000db. The corresponding sea surface topography maps created from satellite altimeter and dynamic height climatology were compared with the tracks of nearly coincident floats and were found to agree well in most cases except for the period June 5 to 16 2001. It is shown that over the period the conspicuous breakaway of the floats from an expected path is possibly associated with the abnormal path of the Kuroshio Extension such as an outbreak event, as revealed by AVHRR infrared and SeaWiFS chlorophyll-a images and cruise data in cross sections.