The Stevens Institute included synthetic events in the computer modeling because this provided an improved estimation of low - probability events such as the 100 - year (1% annual chance) or 1000 - year (0.1% annual chance) flood, provided the model is well validated against historical data.
The map animations show colors for water level, arrow vectors for wind velocity, and black or white lines for isobars (lines of constant atmospheric pressure). Some tropical cyclone maps also show the storm track as a unmoving black line. Inset x-y axes for some animations also show the time history of the water level for New York Harbor (black) and Albany (green).
