Feature Routines

HDF-EOS is an extension of NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) HDF and uses HDF calls as an underlying basis. This API contains functionality for creating, accessing and manipulating Grid, Point and Swath structures.

The Grid interface is designed to support data that has been stored in a rectilinear array based on a well-defined and explicitly supported projection.

Tips on writing a grid:

Setting a compression method affects all subsequently defined fields

Setting a tiling scheme affects all subsequently defined fields

The Point interface is designed to support data that has associated geolocation information, but is not organized in any well-defined spatial or temporal way.

Tips on writing a point:

Every level in a point data set must be linked into the hierarchy

Before two levels can be linked, a link field must exist

The Swath interface is tailored to support time-oriented data such as satellite swaths (which consist of a time-oriented series of scanlines), or profilers (which consist of a time-oriented series of profiles).

Tips on writing a swath:

Define dimensions before using them to define fields of maps

Setting a compression method affects all subsequently defined fields

If a dimension map is not defined, a one-to-one mapping is assumed during subsetting.