The Generic File Format (GFF) is a file format developed within the UK ASW community for the interchange and storage of underwater sonar data. Originally developed for the interchange of time-series data between analysis systems, it has been extended to provide for storage of processed acoustic data (e.g., power and DEMON spectrum, lofargram grey-scale), nonacoustic data (e.g., own-ship dynamics, sensor configuration) and event data (e.g., tracker output, sonar intercepts). The format employs the chunk concept, as used in the WAV and AIFF file formats, to provide extendability (including local variants) while providing a measure of backward compatability. However, the basic concept has been adapted to allow for the mixing in the one file of multiple channels of different sample-rates and data-types through the inclusion of a data frame concept and multiple data blocks. Chunk cross-referencing has been employed to ensure data consistency. A provision is made in the header of the file to store details of the sensor and processing for the data (e.g., the number of hydrophones, beam direction, FFT size) so that an analysis system does not need to know about the sensor or other system from which the data originated.