SHA-224 is a cryptographic hash function that produces a fixed-size output of 224 bits. It is part of the SHA-2 family, which was designed by NSA to enhance security over its predecessor, SHA-1. SHA-224 is commonly used in various security applications and protocols, including digital signatures and data integrity verification. The function takes an input of any size and generates a unique hash value, making it difficult to reverse-engineer the original data. Due to its shorter output compared to other SHA-2 variants like SHA-256, SHA-224 is often preferred in scenarios where a smaller hash size is sufficient while still providing strong security.