What is an H5 file? An H5 file is a data file saved in the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). It contains multidimensional arrays of scientific data. H5 files are commonly used in aerospace, physics, engineering, finance, academic research, genomics, astronomy, electronics instruments, and medical fields.

More Information Two commonly used versions of HDF include HDF4 and HDF5 (developed to improve upon limitations of the HDF4 library). Files saved in the HDF4 version are saved as an .H4 or HDF4 file. Files saved in the HDF5 version are saved as an H5 or HDF5 file. NOTE: The HDF Group maintains a list of programs that can read and process H4 files. One common open source option is GDAL - The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library.