Panoply Data Viewer

Download Panoply

Panoply requires a computer with Java 11 (or later version) installed.

The current version of Panoply is 5.3.0, released 2023-11-30.

Install and Run Panoply

After downloading the appropriate Panoply archive linked above, uncompress the archive file on your desktop. Within is a README text file with an explanation of the contents of the download, instructions on how to launch the application, and some notes on possible launch bugs and/or performance tuning.

We would like to point out the following possible installation and launch issues:

If you find that after download and installation, Panoply won't start, a possible reason might be that you don't have a Java Runtime Engine (JRE) or Java Delopment Kit (JDK) installed on your computer, or that it is not a Java 11 (or later) JRE/JDK.

On macOS and Windows, there is also a JAVA_11 text file in the Panoply distro that discusses Java licensing issues and possible alternative, open source Java installs if your organization has not agreed to current Oracle Java licensing.

On macOS: There have been reports that Panoply for macOS fails to launch on recent Macs built with "Apple silicon" ARM chips. If this is the case for you, you should first see if Panoply will work with a different Java install. See the JAVA_11 README file for suggestions about that. Also note that the Panoply downloads page now includes an ARM-specific version, which requires that the Java install also be ARM-specific.

Some users who have a second display attached to their Mac have reported Panoply does not respond after they select an input file via the filechooser dialog. If you experience this, please download and try the version above labeled (JFC), which uses the Java filechooser.

On Windows: You must extract Panoply from the ZIP archive before you try to run it. If you simply open the ZIP file and then double-click on the Panoply icon, you will get a class-loader error because it cannot locate code files.

Panoply for Windows requires that certain keys/values regarding the Java installation be set in the Windows Registry. However, some alternative Java distributions may not set these keys or else may require that you explicitly set them during installation. See the JAVA_11 README file.

On Linux etc: The TGZ archive of Panoply "generic" was created using a BSD tar on macOS. Using GNU-tar to uncompress the package will probably print several "Ignoring unknown extended header keyword" warning messages. You should be able to ignore these messages.

Download Color Tables and Map Overlays

Panoply's "standard" selection of color tables and map overlays is built into the application. Additional color tables and overlays may be opened for a single session or added to your favorites library for continued use. See the Panoply website for a selection of such optional files.

Multipoint SHP shapefiles may be suitable for use as outline overlays. However, the more detailed the shapefile, the greater the impact on Panoply's performance. Further, Panoply does not understand projection shapefiles.

For additional scale color tables, the cpt-city website includes many CPT format files that are compatible with Panoply. Numerous RGB color tables are available from the NCL Graphics color table gallery.

+ Return to Panoply homepage