Advanced Scientific Data Format

The Advanced Scientific Data Format (ASDF, not to be confused with the Adaptable Seismic Data Format) is a "proposed" replacement for Flexible Image Transport System and other astronomy data (namely, image) formats. Like FITS and similar formats (HDF, etc.), it is meant to store both large amounts of data and metadata describing it in the same file. ASDF uses YAML to store this metadata. "Blocks" are compressed with either Gzip or Bzip.

Identification
ASDF files start with the magic number, followed by a space and version information.

Specifications

 * 
 * A PDF version of the above. (As of the time of writing, this returns a 404, and the Wayback Machine gives a mysterious "this page does not exist" error.)

Software

 * The reference implementation
 * A C++ implementation that the link in the specification notes is not "currently feature complete"
 * Another C++ implementation. Ditto.

Sample Files

 * Test files in the reference implementation source