ASTER User's Guide - NASA

ASTER Users HandbookAppendix IV: Public Domain Software for Handling HDF-EOS FormatASTER data products are stored in a specific implementation of HDF called HDF-EOS. Thisformat is very flexible and accommodates the wide range of products available from the EOSinstruments. Although HDF is a flexible storage format, it can be a daunting task getting data outof HDF and into a users image analysis and display package. Fortunately several image analysisand display packages are able to ingest ASTER data making it easy for users that have thosepackages to begin working with the data. Users are cautioned that some of these packages do notalways ingest the files correctly and care should be taken to check the file has been ingestedcorrectly. There are also other programs that allow users to search the metadata associated with aproduct. The EOS project maintains a list of software packages that are able to work with EOSdata at:http://hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.gov/hdfeos/viewingHDFEOS.htmlThere have been a number of public domain software packages to handle HDF-EOS that havebeen developed over the last few years. Following is a list of such software and URL addressesto procure them:1) WINVICAR: JPL has developed an image analysis package (WINVICAR) that works underWindows NT, 2000 and XP. This package includes programs for getting ASTER data out ofHDF and into ASCII, BINARY and WINVICAR format. There are also programs to dump themetadata from ASTER data files. For more information: http://winvicar.jpl.nasa.gov2) HEG (HDF-to-GeoTiff) Tool: This tool was developed by the ECS Project Office to fulfillthe needs of the image processing and GIS communities as they grappled with the HDF-EOSformat. The tool converts HDF-EOS swath and grid data to HDF-EOS Grid, GeoTIFF, or to ageneric binary format. The tool can be used to re-project data from its original format to otherstandard projections, to subset data and to mosaic adjacent files together. Swath data can also beconverted to Grid data. For more information:http://hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.gov/hdfeos/details.cfm?swID=4HEG’s User Guide is available from:http://hdfeos.gsfc.nasa.gov/hdfeos/software/HEG/HEG_UsersGuide.pdf3) Java HDF Viewer (JHV): This is a visualization tool developed by NCSA for browsingHDF4 files. It has a nested hierarchical structure that allows easy navigation of the differentcomponent object files. Since it is written in Java, it is machine-independent, and hence easilyportable across platforms. For more information: http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/java-hdf-html/jhv/JHV’s User Guide is available from:ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF/java/source/unpacked/docs/UsersGuide/JHV2.7/index.html4) MultiSpec: This is a tool developed by Purdue University for interactively analyzingmultispectral and hyperspectral image data serving especially the Macintosh and Windowsplatforms. For more information: http://www.ece.purdue.edu/~biehl/MultiSpec/131