Summary

Follow-up to PR #240 (heatmap phase 1). Two related changes:

1. SQL pre-aggregation — replaces the LIMIT 100000 raw-row scan + JS per-pixel binning with a DuckDB GROUP BY that does the binning server-side. Removes the cap honestly: every sample in the bbox is counted, regardless of total sample count.
2. Adaptive radius + maxOpacity — fixes the "everything red" symptom RY surfaced at world view after explorer: heatmap overlay spike — phase 1 (#233) #240 shipped.

Why #1: LIMIT 100000 was geographically biased

LIMIT 100000 returned the first 100k rows in parquet storage order — not random, not geographic. At world view, the heatmap silently showed whichever source happened to be physically first in the file (likely SESAR — the largest source by row count). The "(capped)" status warning from #240 disclosed the problem but didn't fix it.

This PR pushes the binning into DuckDB. SQL computes (x_bin, y_bin) pixel coordinates server-side using FLOOR/LEAST/GREATEST, then GROUP BY (x_bin, y_bin) returning one row per non-empty pixel with COUNT(*) as the count. Result cardinality is bounded by canvas pixels (≤ 512² = 262k), independent of bbox sample count. No LIMIT needed — every sample counted into its true pixel bucket.

Antimeridian handled: when bbox wraps (west > east), SQL shifts longitude < west by +360 so pixel arithmetic works in a continuous coordinate space.

Verified counts vs the existing samples table summary line (= true sample count for the current view):

Render time at world view (~6M samples → 35k cells): ~7s on localhost — similar to or faster than the LIMIT 100k version. Status text always reports the true count; the (capped) branch is removed.

Why #2: adaptive radius

After (1), RY tested staging and reported world view "everything is red." Cause: with 35k+ pixel cells on a 512² canvas, heatmap.js's default 25-pixel blur radius made each cell's Gaussian cover ~1% of canvas. 35k × 1% = >>100% → linear-additive blending saturated everything to full red.

Two complementary fixes:

• maxOpacity: 0.6 on the heatmap.js instance — caps the rendered alpha so dense areas don't fully wash out the satellite imagery
• Per-point radius computed from sqrt(canvas_pixels / cell_count) × 2, clamped to [6, 30]. World view (35k cells) → radius ≈ 6 (tight pixel dots, no overlap saturation). Cyprus medium (~400 cells) → radius = 30 cap (smooth blobs as before).

World view now shows geographic structure instead of solid red. Tight zooms unchanged visually.

Test plan

• tests/playwright/heatmap-overlay.spec.js 5/5 pass on localhost
• Visual verified on rdhyee staging at the URLs RY surfaced (Africa-wide alt=7.4Mkm, Atlantic alt=15Mkm). World view shows structure; smaller zooms unchanged.
• Numbers match table exactly at all zoom levels (table above)
• Verify on production after merge

Out of scope

• Cluster dots still don't align with heatmap hotspots at cluster-mode altitudes (cluster = H3 centroids; heatmap = real positions). Phase 3 (third-mode promotion that hides cluster dots when heatmap is on) — separate work.
• The HEATMAP_LIMIT constant (= 100,000) is kept in the code but no longer referenced; left in place for phase 2 in case a safety cap on cell count is reintroduced.

Provenance

Authored by Claude in response to RY feedback ("wondering whether we can do better geographic random sampling"). Approach (SQL pre-aggregation by pixel cell) chosen over TABLESAMPLE because it removes the cap entirely rather than just making the sampling random. Adaptive radius added in response to RY's second feedback that world view was washing out to red.

Cross-refs

• explorer: spike a progressive heatmap layer as filter-honest alternative to cluster mode #233 — progressive heatmap spike (this is phase 1.5; phase 2 = progressive refinement)
• explorer: heatmap overlay spike — phase 1 (#233) #240 — heatmap phase 1 (predecessor; introduced the LIMIT cap that this PR removes)
• explorer: architectural direction — make filter semantics coherent across all surfaces #234 — explorer-filter-coherence roadmap (heatmap is the C-side solution)