ASDF - Advanced Scientific Data Format

The complexity and size of current astronomical data presents new problems for standard file formats. To address these challenges, the Advanced Scientific Data Format (ASDF) combines human-readable YAML and efficient binary array storage in one flexible format. Beyond its initial use for processing and storing data from the James Webb Space Telescope, ASDF has been adopted for use in processing and storing data from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The needs of these varied missions have been met by implementing a python library, asdf, with an extensible plugin system that can read and write arbitrary structures to disk and customizable schemas used to validate the structure of ASDF files. This flexibility and verifiability makes ASDF an ideal format for scientific data. This presentation will cover how to use asdf to read and write scientific data. Beyond covering core features, this presentation will survey existing plugins relevant to astronomical data analysis and demonstrate how to extend asdf to store custom objects. Additionally, current and future development of the ASDF format will be discussed with the hope for feedback from the scientific community.