Netcdf
NetCDF (network Common Data Form) is a binary data format standard for exchanging scientific data. The project homepage is hosted by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). They are also the chief source of NetCDF software, standards development, updates etc.
Format description
The data is kept in a "self-describing" format. This means that there is a header describing the various data arrays that are upcoming, which allows you to mention things like their length, stored format (i.e. int16, int32 etc), some free text metadata, a few other things. The available software libraries let you encode and decode these things, all of which gives us platform independence, avoiding issues like Endian problems etc. There are tools for handling the conversions to and from text.
Common uses
It is commonly used in weather forecasting and GIS applications. It is an input/output format for may GIS applications, and is a Good Choice (i.e. open, standard, supported etc etc) for general scientific data exchange. To quote from their site "NetCDF (network Common Data Form) is an interface for array-oriented data access and a library that provides an implementation of the interface. The netCDF library also defines a machine-independent format for representing scientific data."
Related format
GRIB (Gridded Binary)
External link
NetCDF Homepage
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