Plans for two years and beyond are uncertain, but so far include:

• In general, move successful netCDF-Java features into C-based APIs:
• Plug-in extension framework for C-based APIs to support reading other data formats (e.g. GRIB) through a common data model interface
• Read-only access through NcML in C-based APIs
• Automatic data packing using _Scale and _Offset attributes
• Support for additional HDF5 types, including references, to permit reading NPOESS data
• Enhanced streaming for optimized read access to netCDF subsets requested by coordinate system bounding boxes
• Group support for classic format by using "/" in names
• Plug-in framework for ncgen to support output of other languages than C and Fortran
• Addition of asynchronous I/O facilities for DAP and local access

2009 Unidata NetCDF Workshop for Developers and Data Providers > The Future of netCDF