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WXcam Zarr

Path:

  • /data/aurora/products/wxcam/wxcam.zarr

The WXcam pixel Zarr was a local mutable working product. Production no longer appends to it. It is excluded from both GWS and object-store product writers because it can be rebuilt from the archived HDR JPG imagery. It is not a canonical backup and is never accepted as raw-retention evidence.

Store purpose

The WXcam Zarr contains HDR JPG image data only. MP4 products are stored separately.

The retired store started at 2026-07-04T00:00:00Z; earlier WXcam media were left in raw/catalog products and were not decoded into this Zarr. A guarded infrastructure cleanup may remove the local directory only after fresh strict GWS/object-store verification is green and the appender timer is disabled.

Root attributes

  • instrument = "wxcam"
  • title = "Aurora wxcam HDR images"
  • storage_policy = "Contains locally retained FISH HDR and PANO HDR JPG image data with timestamps derived from filenames; MP4 products are stored separately."

Root groups

  • fish_hdr
  • pano_hdr

The root Zarr group is only a container. Open one of these child groups to read image data and timestamps.

Group dataset structure

Each group stores one xarray dataset with:

  • dimensions: time, y, x, channel
  • coordinates:
  • time - UTC image timestamps
  • y - pixel row index
  • x - pixel column index
  • channel - RGB labels: R, G, B
  • data variables:
  • image[time, y, x, channel] - uint8 RGB pixel data
  • filename[time]
  • width[time]
  • height[time]
  • size_bytes[time]

Group geometry

Expected geometry is 3120 x 3040 for fish_hdr and 2880 x 750 for pano_hdr. The final time count and coverage are historical implementation details. They do not advance after the production appender is disabled.

Important note

The dashboard does not render WXcam directly from this Zarr:

  • interactive WXcam uses stitched MP4 products
  • science WXcam uses the SQLite catalog plus hourly thumbnail products

The retained source archive is the immutable FISH/PANO HDR JPG and MP4 tree in the cloud raw mirror, GWS, and object storage. The SQLite catalog, daily videos, and hourly thumbnails are separately archived products.

No dashboard feature depends on the pixel Zarr. Recreate it from canonical HDR media in a separate working path if a future analysis needs array access; do not restore the production appender merely to satisfy archive monitoring.