What is Panoply and how do I download it?

Panoply is a NetCDF/GRIB/HDF viewer application that WRF Portal and WRF Domain Wizard use for visualization. By default, Panoply is automatically downloaded from the wrfportal website on first use. This works transparently on most computers. If, however, security on your system blocks outbound access to the web, this automatic feature won't work.

Instead, you can download the following files manually and copy them to the appropriate locations. Depending on your browser, you may need to Right-Click on the filenames below and select "Save As":

Download Panoply282.zip to <your home dir>/.gissjava and then unzip the files into that directory (create the directory if it doesn't already exist)

Download greenscale.pal to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist)
Download greenscale_20.act to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download bluescale.pal to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download bluescale_20.act to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download grayscale.act to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download rainbow_diff.pal to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download rainbow_diff_32.gct to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download redscale.pal to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download redscale_20.act to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download seaice.pa1 to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download seasonal.pal to <your home dir>/.gissjava/colorbars (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).

Download Earth_MWDB3.cno to <your home dir>/.gissjava/overlays (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).
Download USA_MWDB3.cnob to <your home dir>/.gissjava/overlays (create the directory if it doesn't already exist).

So, for example, if your home directory is /whome/jsmith, then you would copy Panoply282.zip to /whome/jsmith/.gissjava (and then unzip it). Repeat this download process for the other files.

Once you have downloaded these files to the correct directory locations, WRF Portal and WRF Domain Wizard will be able to use Panoply.

You can learn more about this excellent tool from the NASA Panoply website