This project page only summarizes the work up to year 2011. The maintenance work of HDF5 OPeNDAP handler is still supported via the ESDIS projects. For the latest information, please visit here.
Our project goal is to develop software to access HDF5 data via OPeNDAP. OPeNDAP is a software framework that simplifies scientific data transfer, allowing simple access to remote data. End users can access, visualize, and analyze remote HDF5 data via OPeNDAP.
We made the handler to follow the CF conventions so that NASA HDF-EOS5 products and some NASA HDF5 products can be accessed via the popular OPeNDAP client tools such as Panoply and IDV. NASA data centers such as GES DISC use this handler to provide their HDF data service.
The image below, generated by the GrADS client and later annotated (in orange) to highlight relevant elevations, shows the vertical profile of carbon monoxide(CO) over Beijing for three different dates in the summer of 2008. The amount of CO, reported in units of 1.0e-7 VMR (volume mixing ratio), is shown on the X axis. Atmospheric pressure, in hectoPascals (hPa), is shown on the Y axis. The CO amounts between 200 hPa (lower stratosphere) and 315 hPa (upper troposphere) are measures of pollution. These pressures correspond to elevations of approximately 12 and 9 kilometers above sea level. The plot clearly shows the CO levels measured by the Aura MLS instrument declined over the period examined, indicating improved air quality. The Aura MLS data served by NASA, the standard GrADS OPeNDAP client, and the HDF5-OPeNDAP data handler and prototype HDF5-friendly OPeNDAP client library facilitated quick analysis of Beijing air quality without relying on special-purpose tools or applications.
For more information, click the links on the left.
