NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Seeing Sandy’s Impacts with Remote Sensors MODIS satellite view of Hurricane Sandy at 2:20 pm EDT Monday, October 29, Image credit: NASA. Prepared by Steve Stanne, Hudson River Estuary Program, in partnership with the NYS Water Resources Institute, Cornell University

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Storm surge and wind were responsible for most of the damage caused by Sandy around New York City and in the Hudson Valley. This presentation analyzes what happened using information from instruments on the water that send their data to the World Wide Web. South Ferry subway station, NYC, Tuesday, October 30, Image credit: MTA

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation This graph shows water levels at the Battery, Manhattan’s southern tip, during the week before Sandy hit. The ups and downs are high and low tides; zero is the average level of the lowest low tides. The blue line shows predicted tides – the red line, actual tides. The green line gives the difference between the two, caused by weather or other factors. There was little difference between predicted and actual tides in this time period.

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation This graph shows water levels at the Battery as Sandy approached and hit. The green line - the difference between predicted and actual levels - shows storm surge due to Sandy. How high was it? The red line shows actual levels, combining high tide and storm surge. This is called the storm tide. How high was the storm tide? When did maximum flooding occur?

NYS Department of Environmental Conservation The Hudson River is an estuary from New York Harbor north past Albany to Troy, 153 miles from the Battery. Tides affect the river all the way to Troy. Do you think that Sandy’s storm surge influenced water levels at Albany, 145 miles north of the Battery? Port of Albany Albany The Battery Troy