Extract text from HDF-EOS5 data files (HE5)
To convert HE5 data files to another format, you need HDFView or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Scientific Data File" file type, you need software like HDFView or a similar tool.
The .HE5 file is a scientific data container based on the HDF5 (Hierarchical Data Format) standard. It is primarily used by NASA and the Earth Observing System (EOS) to store massive datasets, including satellite imagery, atmospheric readings, and spatial metadata. You can view these files using specialized tools like HDFView or NASA's Panoply. Users can also read them programmatically using Python libraries like h5py.
Working with .HE5 files presents significant challenges. The format is highly complex and designed for multi-dimensional arrays. Files often exceed several gigabytes. Standard text editors and spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel cannot open them. You must use specialized software or programming scripts to extract the data. Users usually need to convert .HE5 data into more accessible formats to analyze it in standard business software.
The best target formats for conversion are CSV for tabular data extracts, JSON for metadata, or NC (NetCDF) for broader geospatial compatibility. Converting a hierarchical dataset into a flat CSV file often causes the loss of multi-dimensional metadata. Extracting specific variables requires targeting exact internal file paths.
Because .HE5 files rely on complex, underlying HDF5 binary structures, standard online converters usually fail to process them. Often, only the original scientific software or specialized data science scripts can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or data extraction may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HE5 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted H5, CXI and HDF files.
If you want to convert HE5 file to CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG, CONF, DAT, DB or SQL, you can use HDFView or similar software from the "Scientific Data Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to HE5, try HDFView or another comparable tool in the "Scientific Data 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 HE5 converter.