# How to Obtain and Read GW Data in SFDB File Format **URL:** \ **Category:** Data Analysis\ **Created:** [July 9, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/how-to-obtain-and-read-gw-data-in-sfdb-file-format/1073 "2024-07-09T08:46:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CKS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@CKS](https://ask.igwn.org/u/CKS)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2024, 8:46am UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/how-to-obtain-and-read-gw-data-in-sfdb-file-format/1073/1 "2024-07-09T08:46:30Z")
Hi everyone, I’m looking for help on how to get GW data in the SFDB file format and how to read this format. Any advice or useful links on learning more about SFDB would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![martinberoiz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/ask.igwn.org/martinberoiz/32/11_2.png) [@martinberoiz](https://ask.igwn.org/u/martinberoiz)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/how-to-obtain-and-read-gw-data-in-sfdb-file-format/1073/2 "2024-07-10T00:04:14Z")
Hi Charchit, I never heard of the SFDB file format. The [GW Open Science Center](https://gwosc.org) distributes GW strain files in Frame (.gwf) and HDF5 file formats from its [download page](https://gwosc.org/data/). As far as I know, no one else is repacking the files in a different format. ---
**Author:** ![CKS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@CKS](https://ask.igwn.org/u/CKS)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2024, 10:23am UTC](https://ask.igwn.org/t/how-to-obtain-and-read-gw-data-in-sfdb-file-format/1073/3 "2024-07-10T10:23:04Z")
Hi Martin, thanks for your response. The SFDBs are collections of FFTs taken from detector data. This data is divided into overlapping chunks of a fix time duration. The continuous wave (CW) community uses these files to search for continuous waves.