New Developments in the PuffinPlot Paleomagnetic Data Analysis Program

Abstract

PuffinPlot is a program for paleomagnetic data analysis and plotting, first released in 2012 and under continuous development since then. It is free, cross‐platform software and provides both a graphical desktop interface for interactive use and an application‐programmer interface for scripting. We present a major new release of the program, describe significant new features added since the first release, and demonstrate their application to real‐world data. New features include automatic magnetic declination realignment, relative paleointensity calculation, virtual geomagnetic pole determination, calculation of inclination‐only statistics, support for reproducible research via the export of self‐contained data bundles, and support for reading a number of popular paleomagnetic file formats. We also discuss the application of unit tests in ensuring PuffinPlot's long‐term reliability and outline directions for future development of the software.