Self-Describing Formats:

 

Background

Binary Universal Form for the Representation of Meteorological Data (BUFR)

Please read the sub-article BUFR and GRIB Formats

Character Form for the Representation and Exchange of Data (CREX)

ASCII analog to BUFR. [Further information needed]

Gridded Binary (GRIB, GRB, GRB1, GRB2)

Please read the sub-article BUFR and GRIB Formats

Hierarchical Data Format (HDF, HDF4, HD4, HDF5, HD5)

Due to its extremely widespread and long-term use within the remote sensing community, HDF has experienced evolution in form, resulting in some issues about format and use that must be addressed. Many thanks to the HDF Group for the material below on Format Issues and for some of the resources cited.

HDF Format Issues

HDF Usage Issues

Network Common Data Form (NetCDF, NC, NC4, NCML)

Common Data Language (CDL)

The CDL format is the ASCII analog to NetCDF (above). Both are designed primarily to hold grids, although recently they have been extended to hold measurement data. When a CDL file contains a grid, the grid dimensions are not necessarily Cartesian, so the coordinates of the cell values are given in separate longitude (COADSX) and latitude (COADSY) lists. Notice in this example file of air temperature offshore Namibia, that there is a large header containing useful metadata, a feature CDL shares with NetCDF.

netcdf coads_airT_annu_namib {
dimensions:
    TIME = UNLIMITED ; // (1 currently)
    COADSY27_38 = 12 ;
    COADSX170_181 = 12 ;
variables:
  double TIME(TIME);
   TIME:units = "hour since 0000-01-01 00:00:00";
   TIME:time_origin = "01-JAN-0000 00:00:00";
   TIME:modulo = " ";
   TIME:axis = "T";
  double COADSY27_38(COADSY27_38);
   COADSY27_38:units = "degrees_north";
   COADSY27_38:point_spacing = "even";
   COADSY27_38:axis = "Y";
  double COADSX170_181(COADSX170_181);
   COADSX170_181:units = "degrees_east";
   COADSX170_181:modulo = " ";
   COADSX170_181:point_spacing = "even";
   COADSX170_181:axis = "X";
  float AIRT(TIME, COADSY27_38, COADSX170_181);
   AIRT:missing_value = -1.0E34; // float
   AIRT:_FillValue = -1.0E34; // float
   AIRT:long_name = "AIR TEMPERATURE";
   AIRT:history = "From coads_climatology";
   AIRT:units = "DEG C";
data:
TIME = 366.0 ;
COADSY27_38 = -37.0, -35.0, -33.0, -31.0, -29.0, -27.0, -25.0, -23.0, -21.0, 
  -19.0, -17.0, -15.0 ;
COADSX170_181 = 359.0, 361.0, 363.0, 365.0, 367.0, 369.0, 371.0, 373.0, 
  375.0, 377.0, 379.0, 381.0 ;
AIRT = 17.228333, 17.065, 17.455263, 16.346666, 17.512499, 16.987143, 
  17.545, 17.392857, 18.278461, 18.636896, 19.393158, 20.12606, 18.900278, 
  18.434546, 18.449444, 18.503714, 18.595135, 18.457222, 18.675499, 
  18.710697, 19.071627, 19.72925, 19.780909, 20.680454, 20.247097, 
  20.205555, 20.416842, 19.726, 19.536154, 19.536154, 19.85093, 19.870714, 
  19.926363, 19.161818, 18.026363, -1.0E34, 21.402308, 21.224167, 21.257647, 
  21.004103, 20.88439, 20.502619, 20.328604, 20.34159, 20.045227, 19.30814, 
  18.785713, -1.0E34, 22.426786, 22.085554, 21.621315, 21.5655, 21.184048, 
  20.894545, 20.68186, 20.453863, 19.682499, 17.732187, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 
  22.565641, 22.434633, 22.128809, 21.716743, 21.435226, 20.857273, 
  20.561363, 20.263409, 17.732925, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 22.782927, 
  22.277618, 22.16744, 21.9075, 21.535814, 21.021135, 20.62659, 18.51375, 
  16.666666, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 22.719025, 22.728636, 22.302273, 
  22.170513, 21.755814, 21.232044, 20.676285, 18.70317, 17.25389, -1.0E34, 
  -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 22.673489, 22.640232, 22.737429, 22.063095, 21.708635, 
  21.38128, 20.5005, 19.43775, 20.286999, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 
  22.922045, 22.576841, 22.574652, 22.175226, 21.924318, 21.463783, 
  20.031794, 19.62697, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 23.318485, 
  22.988647, 22.597273, 22.291136, 21.959486, 21.70975, 20.270811, -1.0E34, 
  -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 23.486755, 22.993954, 22.83909, 
  22.902895, 22.845121, 22.681786, 22.34054, 23.177826, -1.0E34, -1.0E34, 
  -1.0E34, -1.0E34 ;

 

ENVISAT Format

The EnviSat format is actually a family of closely related formats, developed within a common schema for representation of data from the eponymous satellite platform. ENVISAT products will all follow a generalized structure consisting of:

Consult the references below for detailed information.