HDF is a library and platform independent data format for the storage and exchange of scientific data. It includes C, Fortran, and Java calling interfaces, and utilities for analyzing and converting HDF data files.

HDF is developed and supported by NCSA, and is freely available. It is used world-wide in many fields, including Environmental Science, Neutron Scattering, Non-Destructive Testing, and Aerospace, to name a few.

Scientific projects that use HDF include NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, and the DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative.

All ACE data available to the scientific community (Browse, Level 1, Level 2, ancillary) is formatted using HDF.

• NCSA HDF Home Page - Information, Support, and Software for all platforms from the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) Group of NCSA.

• HDF News, Libraries and Browsers - For Win95/NT and Macintosh platforms.

• Automatic HDF Code Generation using a perl script (hdfgen.pl) - This script, written at ASC, automates many of the steps required to write C programs which read/write HDF data files.

• A description of how ACE Level 2 data is implemented in HDF. Uses SIS Level 2 data as an example.

• The DIAL Experimental Data Server that is being used at the ACE Science Center to allow web-browsing of HDF data files was jointly developed by Hughes STX and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications under contract to NASA/GSFC. The ACE Science Center has customized the software for the ACE dataset.