Additional Overlays
The Panoply application distribution includes several continental "overlay" files, either in the form of masks (GIF and PNG files) or outlines (CNO files).
We provide here many more compatible overlay files.
Many of the outline files listed below are derived from the Micro World Data Bank (MWDB) II dataset by Fred Pospeschil.
These data offer outlines at five different resolutions, from 1 (very high) to 5 (very low); the resolution is denoted with a MWDB1, MWDB2, etc., in the file name.
Please note that on older computers, Panoply can be sluggish when plotting outlines from MWDB1 files. Unless high resolution is needed for a regional plot, MWDB3 outlines should be sufficient for most maps.
Two overlays are embedded within the Panoply application itself:
- Earth outline (CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents.
Resolution is low/moderate and many large islands are omitted.
Also known as Earth_aplot, this outline dataset comes from the aplot plotting application used at GISS.
- Earth mask (PNG):
720×360 black-and-white mask based on Earth.cno.
Other overlays are included in the application distribution in a separate "overlays" directory. If unneeded, these files can be removed from the directory and they will not be included in the plotting options the next time that Panoply is launched. They include:
- Earth_MWDB3 outline (CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents.
- Earth_5x4 outline (CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents approximated on a 5°×4° grid.
- Earth_5x4 mask (GIF):
720×360 black-and-white mask based on Earth_5x4.cno.
- Earth_10x8 outline (mask):
Outlines of Earth's continents approximated on a 10°×8° grid.
- Earth_10x8 mask (GIF):
720×360 black-and-white mask based on Earth_10x8.cno.
The following additional overlays are available as separate downloads. After download (and uncompression), just place each overlay file in the "overlays" directory in the Panoply distribution. They will appear in Panoply's plotting options the next time you launch the application.
Continents
Continents and Political Borders
- Borders_MWDB3 outline (165 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents and of national borders.
- USA_MWDB2 outline (455 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents and of national and U.S. state borders.
- USA_MWDB3 outline (119 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents and of national and U.S. state borders.
Paleo Continents
- Paleo_Pliocene_3ma outline (54 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents during the Pliocene approx. 3 Mya, based on data provided by L. Sohl.
- Paleo_Pliocene_3ma mask (12 kB GIF):
1440×720 black-and-white mask based on the Paleo_Pliocene_3ma outline.
- Paleo_Sturtian outline (3 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents during the Sturtian glaciation approx. 750 Mya, based on data provided by L. Sohl.
- Paleo_Sturtian mask (3 kB GIF):
720×360 black-and-white mask based on the Paleo_Sturtian outline.
- Paleo_Varanger2 outline (3 kB zipped CNO):
Outlines of Earth's continents during the Varanger glaciation approx. 650 Mya, based on data provided by L. Sohl.
- Paleo_Varanger2 mask (3 kB GIF):
720×360 black-and-white mask based on the Paleo_Varanger2 outline.
Mars
Mars_datum outline (64 kB zipped CNO):
Outline of the line of average elevation on Mars.
