HDF-EOS, NASA´s standard data product distribution format for the Earth Observing System data information system

HDF-EOS is the official data format standard for the Earth Observing System Data Information System (EOSDIS) data production, archive and distribution. The adoption of HDF-EOS as the data format standard will encourage and facilitate data and software exchange and interoperability of EOSDIS data. The scientific goal of EOS is to study the global environment and obtain sustained and continuous observations of the Earth´s atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, ice coverage, and land uses. The goal of EOSDIS is to enable wide use of the collected data. EOSDIS will receive and store over one terabyte of new data each day. ESODIS stores and retrieves these data as “product collections” of “granules”. These terms are roughly equivalent to “data sets” and “files” respectively. The users of these products will number in the thousands and will include scientists from many disciplines, educators, policy makers, commercial organizations and the public