The NetCDF-Java/CDM library provides a uniform API to many different scientific file formats and remote access protocols. Generally, application programmers should respect the encapsulation of these formats. When information is needed about the underlying file type, NetcdfFile.getFileTypeId(), NetcdfFile.getFileTypeVersion(), and NetcdfFile.getFileTypeDescription() methods can be called.

The Id must be unique and once registered, will never change, so that application code can test against it. Version information should have a standard form for each file type, but the form may differ between file types. The Description is human-readable and may present variations when appropriate, such as adding processing history, etc. The Reference URL(s) in this table are informational, and may change as needed.

To support this functionality, getFileTypeId(), getFileTypeVersion(), and getFileTypeDescription() methods have been added to the IOServiceProvider interface as of version 4.0.46. You will need to add these methods to your IOServiceProvider implementations. To use an IOSP implementation, you must include its module in your netCDF-java build. For more information on including modules in your build, see here.

To register your format/IOServiceProvider, or to send corrections and additions to this table, please send email to support-netcdf-java@unidata.ucar.edu.

Id Description Module Reference URL
BUFR WMO Binary Universal Form bufr http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/OperationalCodes.html/
CINRAD Chinese Level-II Base Data cdm-radial http://www.cinrad.com/
DMSP Defense Meteorological Satellite Program cdm-misc http://dmsp.ngdc.noaa.gov/
DORADE DOppler RAdar Data Exchange Format cdm-radial http://www.eol.ucar.edu/rsf/UserGuides/SABL/DoradeFormat/DoradeFormat.html http://www.eol.ucar.edu/instrumentation/airborne-instruments/eldora/
F-TDS Ferret I/O Service Provider and Server-side Analysis cdm-core http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/LAS/documentation/the-ferret-thredds-data-server-f-tds
FYSAT Chinese FY-2 satellite image data in AWX format cdm-image http://satellite.cma.gov.cn/
GempakGrid GEMPAK Gridded Data cdm-mcidas https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/gempak/
GempakSurface GEMPAK Surface Obs Data cdm-mcidas https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/gempak/
GINI GOES Ingest and NOAAPORT Interface cdm-image http://weather.unisys.com/wxp/Appendices/Formats/GINI.html
GRIB-1 WMO GRIB Edition 1 grib http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/Guides/GRIB/GRIB1-Contents.html
GRIB-2 WMO GRIB Edition 2 grib http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/www/WMOCodes/Guides/GRIB/GRIB2_062006.pdf
GTOPO USGS GTOPO digital elevation model cdm-misc http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/gtopo30/gtopo30.html
HDF4 Hierarchical Data Format, version 4 cdm-core http://www.hdfgroup.org/products/hdf4/
HDF5 Hierarchical Data Format, version 5 cdm-core http://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/
McIDASArea McIDAS area file cdm-mcidas http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/doc/misc_doc/area2.html
McIDASGrid McIDAS grid file cdm-mcidas http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/doc/prog_man/2006 http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/doc/prog_man/2006/formats-20.html#22077
netCDF NetCDF classic format cdm-core https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/index.html
netCDF-4 NetCDF-4 format on HDF-5 cdm-core https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/index.html
NEXRAD-2 NEXRAD Level-II Base Data cdm-radial http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html http://www.tsc.com/SETS/_3TDWR.htm
NEXRAD-3 NEXRAD Level-III Products cdm-radial http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html
NLDN National Lightning Detection Network cdm-misc http://www.vaisala.com/weather/products/aboutnldn.html
NMCon29 NMC Office Note 29 cdm-misc http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/data_processing/on29.htm/
OPeNDAP Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol opendap http://opendap.org/
S3 RandomAccessFile access to CDM datasets on object stores cdm-s3 https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/netcdf-java/5.4/userguide/dataset_urls.html#object-stores
SIGMET SIGMET-IRIS weather radar cdm-radial http://www.vaisala.com/en/defense/products/weatherradar/Pages/IRIS.aspx
UAMIV CAMx UAM-IV formatted files cdm-radial http://www.camx.com/
UniversalRadarFormat Universal Radar Format cdm-radial ftp://ftp.sigmet.com/outgoing/manuals/program/cuf.pdf
USPLN US Precision Lightning Network cdm-misc http://www.uspln.com/
VIS5D Vis5D grid file cdm-vs5d http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~billh/vis5d.html
Zarr Zarr dataset cdm-zarr https://zarr.readthedocs.io/en/stable/