Fortner Software Makes Data Accessible; The HDF Browser 1.1 Promotes Technical Data Standards

STERLING, Va., Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortner Software announced today the release of its enhanced HDF Browser, a free technical data browsing tool which allows researchers and technical data workers to easily view data in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). HDF is a popular and widely accepted technical data standard designed to allow easy access and exchange of large and complex data sets. Available free on Fortner's Web site, http://www.fortner.com, the HDF Browser runs on Windows 95/NT and Power Macintosh systems.

Recognizing the need to store technical data in a consistent manner that can be shared across a variety of computer platforms, many scientific communities and organizations such as NASA, the Jet Propulsion Lab, DOE's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have adopted the HDF standard. For example, HDF has been selected as the standard to distribute data from the Sea-Viewing Wide-Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS), and the recently launched Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. TRMM and SeaWiFS are essential parts of Mission to Planet Earth, NASA's long-range research effort to study the Earth as a global environmental system.

"With terabytes of research data being shared around the world on the Internet, the need for technical data standards has never been greater. HDF is the most popular choice because it is cross platform, self-describing, and supports multiple data types and objects," states Ted Meyer, Chief Technology Officer of Fortner Software. "Scientists don't want to spend weeks writing software to read data. The HDF Browser removes barriers to accessing data in the powerful HDF format."

The free HDF Browser opens HDF, ASCII or binary formatted data. It provides support for viewing all HDF data objects: data tables, multidimensional arrays, images, text, palettes, and attributes. Most HDF files contain many objects and the HDF Browser lets users view the hierarchical "directory" structure of the objects in a graphical window that displays the type of data contained in each object. This allows quick examination and exploration of any HDF file, without programming.

"The HDF Browser is a great way to easily access and explore our data without having to write programs in more complex languages," states Peter Ashcroft, of Remote Sensing Systems. "We can now peruse large amounts of satellite data at a glance." Remote Sensing Systems of Santa Rosa, CA, specializes in processing and analyzing microwave data collected by satellite microwave sensors.

New features in the HDF Browser 1.1 include the ability to open and view data in any plane of multidimensional data sets, support for viewing HDF Vdata tables, access to HDF Vgroups, and improved memory management for accessing the directory of very large HDF files. A new on-line manual describes all of the software's functionality. To assist users of the netCDF data format in viewing their data with the HDF Browser, Fortner Software has available for download a new utility that converts netCDF files to HDF.

The HDF Browser is a technology demonstration of Noesys, Fortner Software's commercial technical data mining application. Noesys provides extensive editing, analysis and visualization of technical data and provides point-and-click access and organization of data based on the HDF model. Noesys is available for $795 directly from Fortner Software and their worldwide network of resellers.

About the Hierarchical Data Format

Developed and supported by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, HDF is a library and platform-independent data format for the storage and exchange of scientific data. It was originally developed to support the exchange of data between supercomputers and high-end workstations, but is now used on all computing platforms. The HDF libraries are in the public domain and can be downloaded at http://www.HDFinfo.com. The HDFinfo Web site is a clearinghouse of information about HDF.

About Fortner Software

Founded in 1995, Fortner Software is a closely held private company whose mission is to apply new data mining methodologies and client/server technology to the management and analysis of technical data. The company is headquartered in Sterling, Va. For additional information, contact Lynn Foster, Marketing Communications Director at 703-478-0181 ext. 101, or visit Fortner Software's Web site at http://www.fortner.com.

SOURCE Fortner Software LLC

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/CONTACT: Lynn Foster, Director Marketing Communications of Fortner Software LLC, 703-478-0181, ext. 101; or Cynthia Nelson, Press Liaison, RMR & Associates, 301-217-0009, ext. 32, for Fortner Software/

/Web site: http://www.fortner.com/

CO: Fortner Software LLC ST: Virginia IN: CPR SU: PDT

MS -- DCW001 -- 4912 12/10/97 08:01 EST http://www.prnewswire.com