In a simple view, NetCDF is:

• A data model.
• A file format.
• A set of APIs and libraries for various programming languages.

Together, the data model, file format, and APIs support the creation, access, and sharing of scientific data.

NetCDF APIs are available for most programming languages used in geosciences. Although the NetCDF data model and format are language-independent, all NetCDF APIs are currently implemented over C or Java. Files written through one language API are readable through other language APIs and some language interfaces support remote access.

Languages such as C++, Fortran-77, Fortran-90, Perl, Python, Ruby, Matlab, among others, have C-based interfaces. In particular, NetCDF4-python is a Python interface to the NetCDF C library.

• To describe the concepts of the NetCDF APIs and the libraries providing the API for C and Python.
• To utilize the C-API to create basic NetCDF files.

• Comply with the best practices for writing NetCDF files.
• Identify protocols, servers, and clients for remote data access through NetCDF interfaces.
• Discuss how features of the enhanced NetCDF-4 format can be applied:
  • Groups.
  • Multiple unlimited dimensions.
  • User-defined types.
  • Data compression.
• Create short programs in C that use the NetCDF API to read and write files in the NetCDF classical data model for a given NetCDF data model.
• Create short programs that use the netcdf4-python module to create and read files in NetCDF-4 format for a given NetCDF data model.

• SD1.2.5.1.1.1-B NetCDF C API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.2-B NetCDF C++ API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.3-B NetCDF Java API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.4-B NetCDF Fortran-90 API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.5-B NetCDF Python API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.6-B NetCDF Matlab API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.7-B NetCDF IDL API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.8-B NetCDF NCL API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.9-B NetCDF R API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.10-B NetCDF Ruby API
• SD1.2.5.1.1.11-B NetCDF Perl API
• K1.3.2.4.1-B NetCDF
• K1.3.2.5.2-B PNetCDF