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HDF (Hierarchical Data Format)

ITT Visual Information Solutions software supports HDF because it is just one of the many complicated file formats commonly used in the scientific and engineering community. IDL is a high level, programmer's tool to manipulate and display HDF data. ENVI makes it easy to do remote sensing image processing of images stored in HDF. Noesys is a low cost application to access, view, organize and manage all components of HDF files "at the click of a mouse". The IDL, ENVI and Noesys (ION and VIP, too) product family provides a complete solution for analysis and visualization software designed to meet the needs of technical professionals who work with HDF data.

About HDF

The standard scientific data format known as HDF was originally developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. HDF is a general purpose, machine independent standard for storing large scientific data. Many scientific and research organizations have adopted HDF in order to make their data easily accessible and portable between computer platforms. NCSA develops, maintains and distributes the HDF software I/O libraries.

For additional HDF information and the HDF libraries, visit the NCSA HDF Home Page at http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.

A tutorial for new HDF users who are not programmers is available from Simpson Weather Associates at http://www.swa.com/infosys/hdf/index.html.

HDF-EOS

NASA has selected HDF as one of the data standards for the Earth Observing System (EOS), part of a multi-billion dollar, multi-year project to monitor long-term global environmental change. A specialized form of HDF called HDF-EOS, deals specifically with the kinds of satellite data that EOS produces. "Terra", the first satellite to fly as part of the EOS, was launched in December 1999, and began delivering data officially in April 2000.

For general information about HDF-EOS, visit the NCSA HDF-EOS Project page at http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/hdfeos.html.

For more detailed information about HDF-EOS, see the EOS Standards and Tools Information Center page at http://hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.gov/hdfeos/HDFALT.html.

For information about the Terra satellite, visit the Terra home page at http://terra.nasa.gov/.

Noesys, Transform, T3D, Plot and SciSpy Browser are trademarks of ITT Visual Information Solutions, Inc. IDL is a registered trademark of ITT Visual Information Solutions, Inc.