# Pangeo Showcase: "Visualizing Zarr with zarr-layer"

**URL:** <https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/pangeo-showcase-visualizing-zarr-with-zarr-layer/5531>\
**Category:** Pangeo Showcase\
**Created:** [March 6, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/pangeo-showcase-visualizing-zarr-with-zarr-layer/5531 "2026-03-06T22:39:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chuckwondo](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/chuckwondo/32/2170_2.png) [@chuckwondo](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/chuckwondo)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/pangeo-showcase-visualizing-zarr-with-zarr-layer/5531/1 "2026-03-06T22:39:26Z")

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[![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/pangeo/original/2X/b/b97094fa478224a9a398c54c451a74e31f197432.jpeg "Visualizing Zarr with zarr-layer") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkiRvcv1aoM)

**Title** : “Visualizing Zarr with zarr-layer”  
**Speaker** : Shane Loeffler

**When:** Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 4 PM US Eastern (2026-03-11T20:00:00Z)  
**Where:** [Launch Meeting - Zoom](https://numfocus-org.zoom.us/j/83234473026?pwd=mgM3uAuru1AE1aFPlRjW2dAAAyo8IY.1)  
**Abstract:**

At CarbonPlan, we’ve long used our `@carbonplan/maps` library to visualize Zarr data in the browser. But as datasets grew in resolution, the constraints of this approach became clear: data had to be reprojected and rechunked into tile-aligned mercator pyramids, requiring duplicate storage, expensive preprocessing, and distortions from resampling. We built zarr-layer to loosen these constraints.

`zarr-layer` is a TypeScript library that renders Zarr as a native Custom Layer in Maplibre/Mapbox maps. Instead of requiring tile-aligned chunks, zarr-layer selects intersecting chunks at the current resolution, fetches and decodes them, and reprojects on the GPU. It leverages multiscales, when available, for fast overview support, and supports a wide variety of stores, including Icechunk.

We hope this tooling will lower the barriers to adding Zarr datasets to mapping applications.

Agenda:

- ~15 minutes – Showcase presentation
- 10-30 minutes – Discussion
- 15-30 minutes – Community check-in