Extract text from MGD77T header files (H77T)
To convert H77T header files to another format, you need NOAA NCEI Tools or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Scientific Metadata File" file type, you need software like NOAA NCEI Tools or a similar tool.
The .H77T file functions as an MGD77T Header file, utilized primarily by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) - now part of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. This format stores essential metadata for marine geophysical surveys. It documents cruise details, instrumentation configurations, and data precision for bathymetry, magnetics, and gravity readings. Researchers, geophysicists, and oceanographers use these header files alongside the main MGD77T data files to ensure correct interpretation of the recorded scientific metrics.
Users often need to convert or extract data from .H77T files because the format is highly specialized and strictly standardized for NOAA database ingest. The primary disadvantage of this format is its limited compatibility with mainstream software. While it is fundamentally a tab-delimited text format, opening it directly in standard spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel often breaks the formatting or misinterprets the metadata fields due to specific column requirements. Furthermore, a .H77T file is practically useless on its own; it requires the corresponding data file to provide actionable context.
To make the metadata more accessible for reporting or database entry, converting the file to standard TXT, CSV, or XML is highly recommended. Converting to CSV allows for easier parsing in modern database systems, though the original rigid NGDC schema and validation constraints will be lost in the process.
This file format is difficult to process automatically with generic tools because it relies on a niche, proprietary scientific schema rather than a universal standard. Often, only specialized geospatial software or NCEI-provided scripts can properly read, validate, or export the data natively.
Convert.Guru analyzes your H77T file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert H77T file to TMP, TEMP, CACHE, LOG, BAK, OLD, NEW, PART, DOWNLOAD, CRDOWNLOAD, LOCK or PID, you can use NOAA NCEI Tools or similar software from the "Geophysical Survey Metadata Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DEVICE, CACHE, SOCK, SYMLINK, PID, MOUNT, FIFO, LOG, PIPE, TMP, JUNCTION or TEMP files to H77T, try NOAA NCEI Tools or another comparable tool in the "Geophysical Survey Metadata Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our H77T converter.