Panoply netCDF, HDF and GRIB Data Viewer

panoply \PAN-uh-plee\, noun: 1. A splendid or impressive array. ...

Screenshot of sample Panoply windows

Panoply plots geo-referenced and other arrays from netCDF, HDF, GRIB, and other datasets.

Panoply is a cross-platform application that runs on Macintosh, Windows, Linux and other desktop computers. Panoply requires that your computer has have had a compatible Java 11 (or later version) JRE or JDK installed.

The current version of Panoply is 5.3.3, released 2024-03-01.

With Panoply 5 you can:

  • Create color contour plots of geo-referenced latitude-longitude, latitude-vertical, longitude-vertical, time-latitude or time-vertical arrays sliced from 2D or larger multidimensional variables.
  • Create color contour plots of "generic" 2D arrays from 2D or larger multidimensional variables.
  • Create line plots of data from 1D or larger multidimensional variables.
  • Combine two geo-referenced arrays in one plot by differencing, summing or averaging.
  • Create map plots of trajectory data based on the CF convention or similar.
  • Plot lon-lat data on a global or regional map using any of over 200 map projections or make a zonal average line plot.
  • Overlay continent outlines or masks on lon-lat map plots.
  • Use any of numerous color tables for the scale colorbar, or apply your own custom ACT, CPT, or RGB color table.
  • Save plots to disk GIF, JPEG, PNG or TIFF bitmap images or as PDF or PostScript graphics files.
  • Export lon-lat map plots in KMZ format.
  • Open remote netCDF and HDF dataset stored on an HTTP/HTTPS website or in an S3 bucket.
  • Explore remote THREDDS and OPenDAP catalogs and open datasets served from them.
  • Export animations as MP4 video or as a collection of invididual frame images.

Get Panoply

Panoply requires that your computer have Java 11 (or later version) installed.

Color Tables and Map Overlays

Beginning with version 4.0, Panoply's "standard" selection of color tables and map overlays is built into the application. Additional color tables and map overlays may be opened for a single session or added to your favorites library for continued use.

Documentation and Credits

Contact

Please send bug reports, feature requests, etc., to Dr. Robert Schmunk. All bug reports should indicate what version of Panoply you are using as well as what operating system is on your computer and what version of Java is installed. Also note that requests for assistance opening a dataset or interpreting the gridding of the data within will probably require that you provide a copy of the dataset or instructions on where it might be downloaded.

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