diff --git a/api/processing/providers/esgf.py b/api/processing/providers/esgf.py
index 69d366c..0a8f913 100644
--- a/api/processing/providers/esgf.py
+++ b/api/processing/providers/esgf.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import base64
 from .. import filters
 from api.settings import default_settings
 import xarray
@@ -7,7 +8,8 @@
 import s3fs
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import numpy as np
-from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap
+import io
+import cartopy.crs as ccrs
 
 # we have to operate on urls / dataset_ids due to the fact that
 # rq jobs can't pass the context of a loaded xarray dataset in memory (json serialization)
@@ -25,16 +27,17 @@ def open_remote_dataset(urls: List[str]) -> xarray.Dataset:
     except IOError as e:
         print(f"failed to open parallel: {e}")
         try:
-            ds = xarray.open_mfdataset(urls)
+            ds = xarray.open_mfdataset(urls, concat_dim="time", combine="nested")
         except IOError as e:
-            print(f"failed to open sequentially: {e}")
-            raise IOError(e)
+            print(f"failed to open sequentially, falling back to s3: {e}")
+            return open_remote_dataset_s3(urls)
     return ds
 
 
 def open_remote_dataset_s3(urls: List[str]) -> xarray.Dataset:
     fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
     urls = ["s3://esgf-world" + url[url.find("/CMIP6") :] for url in urls]
+    print(urls, flush=True)
     files = [xarray.open_dataset(fs.open(url), chunks={"time": 10}) for url in urls]
     return xarray.merge(files)
 
@@ -83,12 +86,19 @@ def slice_and_store_dataset(
         return {"status": "failed", "error": str(e), "dataset_id": ""}
 
 
+def buffer_to_b64_png(buffer: io.BytesIO) -> str:
+    buffer.seek(0)
+    content = buffer.read()
+    payload = base64.b64encode(content).decode("utf-8")
+    return f"data:image/png;base64,{payload}"
+
+
 def render_preview_for_dataset(
     urls: List[str],
-    dataset_id: str,
-    variable_index: str,
-    time_index: str,
-    timestamps: str,
+    variable_index: str = "",
+    time_index: str = "",
+    timestamps: str = "",
+    **kwargs,
 ):
     ds = open_remote_dataset(urls)
     axes = {}
@@ -109,39 +119,19 @@ def render_preview_for_dataset(
         ds = ds.sel({time_index: ds[time_index][0]})
     else:
         ds = ds.sel({time_index: slice(timestamps.split(","))})
+
+    # we're plotting x, y, time - others need to be shortened to the first element
+    other_axes = [axis for axis in axes if axis not in ["X", "Y", "T"]]
+    for axis in other_axes:
+        ds = ds.sel({axes[axis]: ds[axes[axis]][0]})
+
     ds = ds[variable_index]
-    x_points = ds[axes["X"]][:]
-    y_points = ds[axes["Y"]][:]
-    units = ds.units
-    name = ds.long_name
-    center_x = x_points.mean()
-    center_y = y_points.mean()
-
-    m = Basemap(
-        width=5000000,
-        height=3500000,
-        resolution="l",
-        projection="merc",
-        llcrnrlat=-80,
-        urcrnrlat=80,
-        llcrnrlon=0,
-        urcrnrlon=360,
-    )
-    lon, lat = np.meshgrid(x_points, y_points)
-    xi, yi = m(lon, lat)
-    cs = m.pcolor(xi, yi, np.squeeze(ds))
-    m.drawparallels(np.arange(-80.0, 81.0, 10.0), labels=[1, 0, 0, 0], fontsize=10)
-    m.drawmeridians(np.arange(-180.0, 181.0, 10.0), labels=[0, 0, 0, 1], fontsize=10)
-
-    # Add Coastlines, States, and Country Boundaries
-    m.drawcoastlines()
-    m.drawstates()
-    m.drawcountries()
-
-    # Add Colorbar
-    cbar = m.colorbar(cs, location="bottom", pad="10%")
-    cbar.set_label(units)
-
-    # Add Title
-    plt.title(name)
-    plt.savefig("x.png")
+
+    fig, ax = plt.subplots(subplot_kw={"projection": ccrs.PlateCarree()})
+    ds.plot(transform=ccrs.PlateCarree(), x=axes["X"], y=axes["Y"], add_colorbar=True)
+    ax.coastlines()
+
+    buffer = io.BytesIO()
+    plt.savefig(buffer, format="png")
+
+    return {"png": buffer_to_b64_png(buffer)}
diff --git a/api/search/providers/esgf.py b/api/search/providers/esgf.py
index 6ba53ef..76fb31c 100644
--- a/api/search/providers/esgf.py
+++ b/api/search/providers/esgf.py
@@ -79,6 +79,7 @@
         "activity_id",
         "nominal_resolution",
         "frequency",
+        "realm",
     ],
     # only take exact matches
     "exact": [
diff --git a/api/server.py b/api/server.py
index 220483a..5e05273 100644
--- a/api/server.py
+++ b/api/server.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 from fastapi import FastAPI, Request, Depends
 from api.search.providers.esgf import ESGFProvider
-from api.processing.providers.esgf import slice_and_store_dataset
+from api.processing.providers.esgf import (
+    render_preview_for_dataset,
+    slice_and_store_dataset,
+)
 from api.dataset.job_queue import create_job, fetch_job_status, get_redis
 from openai import OpenAI
 from urllib.parse import parse_qs
@@ -43,6 +46,15 @@ async def esgf_subset(request: Request, redis=Depends(get_redis), dataset_id: st
     return job
 
 
+@app.get(path="/preview/esgf")
+async def esgf_preview(dataset_id: str, redis=Depends(get_redis)):
+    urls = esgf.get_access_urls_by_id(dataset_id)
+    job = create_job(
+        func=render_preview_for_dataset, args=[urls], redis=redis, queue="preview"
+    )
+    return job
+
+
 @app.get(path="/status/{job_id}")
 async def job_status(job_id: str, redis=Depends(get_redis)):
     return fetch_job_status(job_id, redis=redis)