; Get the Scientific Data information from an HDF file

Function get_sd, filename, name

;Attempt to catch some errors
CATCH, Error_status
If Error_status NE 0 then begin
       Print, 'Error index: ', Error_status
       Print, 'Error message: ', !ERR_STRING
       var = -99999.
       return, var
endif

  sd_id = hdf_sd_start(filename,/read)
  index = hdf_sd_nametoindex(sd_id, name)
  sds_id = hdf_sd_select(sd_id,index)
  hdf_sd_getdata, sds_id, var  
  hdf_sd_endaccess, sds_id      
  hdf_sd_end, sd_id
return, var
end