Sometimes it's useful to use other software packages in tandem with the CoastWatch Utilities to view data file contents. We recommend the HDFView software to view raw NetCDF and HDF file metadata and scientific values as a table of numbers or an image:

HDFView application window showing contents of an AVHRR HDF data file

Other notable GUI software:

The Unidata ToolsUI package, similar to HDFView for viewing the metadata and contents of NetCDF and other data formats. See the ToolsUI documentation for details.
The NASA Panoply software for creating plots of NetCDF and other format data.

Other command line software:

The NetCDF software library contains the I/O library for NetCDF and useful command line tools like ncdump.
The HDF Group distributes I/O library and command line tools for HDF4 such as hdp, and HDF5 such as h5dump.
The NetCDF Operators (NCO) software for command line processing of NetCDF data files (eg: ncatted for modifying NetCDF file attributes).