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NetCDF can be used as an archive format for storing data, but it may take more space than a special-purpose archive format that exploits knowledge of particular characteristics of a set of data. Compression of data is possible with netCDF (e.g., using arrays of eight-bit bytes to encode low-resolution floating-point numbers instead of arrays of 32-bit numbers), but netCDF was not designed to achieve optimal compression of scientific data.
The advantages of a special-purpose archive format for small archives should be compared to the benefits of machine-independence and the ability to store ancillary data (data about the data) that the netCDF interface provides. For large archives, only two programs need to be provided for each archive format, one to translate archived data into netCDF form and the other to translate back to the archive format. Tools provided for manipulating netCDF data will then be available without sacrificing the advantages of the archive format and without requiring the wholesale conversion of large existing archives.
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