Elevation: skip near-zero dropout values mid-recording

Devices (Apple Watch, some GPS units) record 0.0 when they lose barometric/GPS
lock mid-activity. The old accumulation committed these as real sea-level points,
inflating both gain and loss by the current elevation (e.g. 792m dropout on the
Cosmo Walk added ~1584m of phantom gain+loss).

Fix: skip any elevation value < 1.0m when the current committed elevation is
significantly above zero (> threshold). Gradual legitimate descents to sea level
are unaffected because intermediate values are committed along the way.

Add --recompute-elevation flag to bincio render to backfill existing activities.

bincio/extract/metrics.py

@@ -422,6 +422,11 @@ def _elevation(
     gain = loss = 0.0
     committed = elevations[start]
     for e in elevations[start + 1:]:
+        # Skip near-zero values that appear mid-recording while we are at a
+        # significant elevation — these are sensor dropouts (device lost GPS/
+        # barometric lock), not genuine sea-level crossings.
+        if abs(e) < 1.0 and abs(committed) > threshold:
+            continue
         diff = e - committed
         if abs(diff) >= threshold:
             if diff > 0:

bincio/render/cli.py

@@ -220,6 +220,97 @@ def _recompute_best_climbs(data: Path, handle: str | None = None) -> None:
         console.print(f"  [cyan]{user_dir.name}[/cyan]: {updated} climb(s) recomputed")
 
 
+def _recompute_elevation(data: Path, handle: str | None = None) -> None:
+    """Recompute elevation_gain_m / elevation_loss_m for all activities.
+
+    Applies the dropout-skip fix (near-zero values mid-recording) so stored
+    values computed by older code are corrected.  Updates activities/*.json
+    and index.json in-place.
+    """
+    import json
+    from bincio.extract.metrics import _ELEVATION_THRESHOLD
+
+    def _accumulate(elevations: list[float], altitude_source: str) -> tuple[float, float]:
+        if len(elevations) < 2:
+            return 0.0, 0.0
+        threshold = _ELEVATION_THRESHOLD.get(altitude_source, 10.0)
+        # Skip leading near-zeros (device acquiring lock)
+        start = 0
+        if abs(elevations[0]) < 0.5:
+            n_leading = sum(1 for e in elevations if abs(e) < 0.5)
+            if n_leading > 1:
+                for i, e in enumerate(elevations):
+                    if abs(e) > threshold:
+                        start = i
+                        break
+        gain = loss = 0.0
+        committed = elevations[start]
+        for e in elevations[start + 1:]:
+            if abs(e) < 1.0 and abs(committed) > threshold:
+                continue
+            diff = e - committed
+            if abs(diff) >= threshold:
+                if diff > 0:
+                    gain += diff
+                else:
+                    loss += diff
+                committed = e
+        return gain, loss
+
+    targets = [data / handle] if handle else _user_dirs(data)
+    for user_dir in targets:
+        acts_dir = user_dir / "activities"
+        index_path = user_dir / "index.json"
+        if not acts_dir.exists() or not index_path.exists():
+            continue
+        try:
+            index_data = json.loads(index_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+        except Exception:
+            continue
+
+        updated = 0
+        for act_path in acts_dir.glob("*.json"):
+            if act_path.stem.endswith((".timeseries", ".geojson")):
+                continue
+            ts_path = acts_dir / f"{act_path.stem}.timeseries.json"
+            if not ts_path.exists():
+                continue
+            try:
+                detail = json.loads(act_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+                ts = json.loads(ts_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+                raw = ts.get("elevation_m", [])
+                elevations = [e for e in raw if e is not None]
+                if len(elevations) < 2:
+                    continue
+                alt_src = detail.get("altitude_source", "unknown")
+                new_gain, new_loss = _accumulate(elevations, alt_src)
+                new_gain_r = round(new_gain, 1) if new_gain else None
+                new_loss_r = round(abs(new_loss), 1) if new_loss else None
+                if (new_gain_r == detail.get("elevation_gain_m") and
+                        new_loss_r == detail.get("elevation_loss_m")):
+                    continue
+                detail["elevation_gain_m"] = new_gain_r
+                detail["elevation_loss_m"] = new_loss_r
+                act_path.write_text(
+                    json.dumps(detail, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False), encoding="utf-8"
+                )
+                act_id = act_path.stem
+                for s in index_data.get("activities", []):
+                    if s.get("id") == act_id:
+                        s["elevation_gain_m"] = new_gain_r
+                        s["elevation_loss_m"] = new_loss_r
+                        break
+                updated += 1
+            except Exception:
+                pass
+
+        if updated:
+            index_path.write_text(
+                json.dumps(index_data, indent=2, ensure_ascii=False), encoding="utf-8"
+            )
+        console.print(f"  [cyan]{user_dir.name}[/cyan]: {updated} elevation(s) recomputed")
+
+
 def _write_root_manifest(data: Path) -> None:
     """Rewrite the root index.json shard manifest from current user dirs."""
     import json
@@ -306,6 +397,9 @@ def _link_data(site: Path, data: Path) -> None:
 @click.option("--recompute-climbs", "recompute_climbs", is_flag=True,
               help="Recompute best_climb_m for all cycling activities from stored timeseries "
                    "(run once after upgrading the climb algorithm).")
+@click.option("--recompute-elevation", "recompute_elevation", is_flag=True,
+              help="Recompute elevation_gain_m/loss_m for all activities from stored timeseries "
+                   "(run once after upgrading the dropout-skip fix).")
 def render(
     config_path: Optional[str],
     data_dir: Optional[str],
@@ -316,6 +410,7 @@ def render(
     handle: Optional[str],
     no_build: bool,
     recompute_climbs: bool,
+    recompute_elevation: bool,
 ) -> None:
     """Build (or serve) the BincioActivity static site from a BAS data store."""
 
@@ -329,6 +424,10 @@ def render(
         console.print("Recomputing best climbs from timeseries…")
         _recompute_best_climbs(data, handle=handle)
 
+    if recompute_elevation:
+        console.print("Recomputing elevation gain/loss from timeseries…")
+        _recompute_elevation(data, handle=handle)
+
     _merge_edits(data, handle=handle)
     _rebuild_athlete_json(data, handle=handle)
     _bake_tracks(data, handle=handle)