Space atmosphere remote sensing urgently requires ultraviolet (UV) panoramic imager. An optical design method of UV panoramic imagers is proposed. The uniformity of image illumination is improved by using barrel distortion and pupil aberration. Based on the requirements of application, an optical system of UV panoramic imagers is designed. The central wavelength is 360 nm, the bandwidth is 10 nm, the field of view is 360°×(70.9°～73.3°), the focal length is 5 mm, and the relative aperture is 13.3. The modulation transfer function (MTF) is more than 0.72 at the Nyquist spatial frequency of 38.5 lp/mm. The root-mean-square (RMS) radius of spot diagram is less than half of the pixel. 80% of the energy is enclosed in a pixel, the f-θ distortion is less than 0.05%, and the uniformity of image illumination is 89%. The design requirements are satisfied. The configuration of this system is compact and is suitable for the application in space atmosphere remote sensing. It is indicated that the optical design idea of UV panoramic imager is feasible, and the design method can be used in other wavelength ranges, which is instructional for designing panoramic imagers.