Empirical Reinterpretation of High-Altitude Balloon Telemetry: Evidence for Planar Geometry in Raw NASA Scientific Balloon Program Data

Abstract

Raw GPS telemetry from eight recent NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) flights at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, was analyzed without any spherical or geoid corrections. Linear regression on local planar coordinates yields R² values of 0.99979-0.99995, with observed altitude deviations of only 9-24 m over horizontal distances of 175-240 km. Globe-model curvature predictions are exceeded by more than an order of magnitude. These results are independently corroborated by peer-reviewed NASA/CSBF flights from the same launch site. The data support the Planar Earth methodological claim that raw empirical measurements operate on a flat, stationary baseline, with spherical corrections applied only in post-processing. The full analysis is reproducible from public archives.