Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into vectorize-groupby-binary

* upstream/main:
  Explicit indexes (pydata#5692)
  Remove test_rasterio_vrt_network (pydata#6371)
  Allow write_empty_chunks to be set in Zarr encoding (pydata#6348)

Author: dcherian

doc/user-guide/plotting.rst

@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ Finally, if a dataset does not have any coordinates it enumerates all data point
 .. ipython:: python
     :okwarning:
 
-    air1d_multi = air1d_multi.drop("date")
+    air1d_multi = air1d_multi.drop(["date", "time", "decimal_day"])
     air1d_multi.plot()
 
 The same applies to 2D plots below.

doc/whats-new.rst

@@ -22,10 +22,18 @@ v2022.03.1 (unreleased)
 New Features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+- Add a ``create_index=True`` parameter to :py:meth:`Dataset.stack` and
+  :py:meth:`DataArray.stack` so that the creation of multi-indexes is optional
+  (:pull:`5692`). By `Benoît Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
+- Multi-index levels are now accessible through their own, regular coordinates
+  instead of virtual coordinates (:pull:`5692`).
+  By `Benoît Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
 
 Breaking changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+- The Dataset and DataArray ``rename*`` methods do not implicitly add or drop
+  indexes. (:pull:`5692`). By `Benoît Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
 
 Deprecations
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -37,6 +45,9 @@ Bug fixes
 - Set ``skipna=None`` for all ``quantile`` methods (e.g. :py:meth:`Dataset.quantile`) and
   ensure it skips missing values for float dtypes (consistent with other methods). This should
   not change the behavior (:pull:`6303`). By `Mathias Hauser <https://github.com/mathause>`_.
+- Many bugs fixed by the explicit indexes refactor, mainly related to multi-index (virtual)
+  coordinates. See the corresponding pull-request on GitHub for more details. (:pull:`5692`).
+  By `Benoît Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
 
 Documentation
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -45,6 +56,9 @@ Documentation
 Internal Changes
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
+- Many internal changes due to the explicit indexes refactor. See the
+  corresponding pull-request on GitHub for more details. (:pull:`5692`).
+  By `Benoît Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
 
 .. _whats-new.2022.02.0:
 .. _whats-new.2022.03.0:

xarray/backends/zarr.py

@@ -212,7 +212,13 @@ def extract_zarr_variable_encoding(
     """
     encoding = variable.encoding.copy()
 
-    valid_encodings = {"chunks", "compressor", "filters", "cache_metadata"}
+    valid_encodings = {
+        "chunks",
+        "compressor",
+        "filters",
+        "cache_metadata",
+        "write_empty_chunks",
+    }
 
     if raise_on_invalid:
         invalid = [k for k in encoding if k not in valid_encodings]