This is a common difficulty when working with datacubes across formats. Background information: - https://github.com/zarr-developers/VirtualiZarr/pull/745#issuecomment-3166033153 - netCDF this is the historical meaning of _FillValue: [docs.unidata.ucar.edu/nug/2.0-draft/nug_conventions.html#FillValue](https://docs.unidata.ucar.edu/nug/2.0-draft/nug_conventions.html#FillValue). - overview from Ryan - https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/5475#issuecomment-2381477207