A background term based on geometric area cancels 89 to 103 percent of the three-event T16 loss in TIC 308453016 in sector 1

We test whether a term made from the saved background column can account for a known T16 light loss. We use 12 previously selected targets on TESS sector 1, camera 4, CCD 3. The period is fixed at 5.6962 days. Three interior event windows use a local linear baseline. For TIC 308453016, BGV rises by 0.4081 ADU per pixel. Multiplying this rise by the geometric areas of apertures with radii 1, 1.5, and 2.25 pixels accounts for 88.9, 96.6, and 103.4 percent of their raw IFL losses. No area coefficient is fitted. The losses are 4.11, 5.17, and 8.42 percent of median IFL before addition, and 0.45, 0.18, and -0.29 percent after addition. Nine window choices give cancellation fractions from 86.6 to 111.1 percent across the three apertures. None of the other 11 targets has a comparable cancellation. A separate check uses low flux pixels in public image cutouts for all 12 fields. Each mean loss is within the central 95 percent of 352 shifted-window values. The second event gives little or no loss. These image statistics do not establish a repeating sky background cause. The sum IFL + pi r squared BGV is an accounting statistic. An image-subtraction kernel can change the background coefficient, and the required exposure kernels are absent from these HLSP files. Thus the result does not establish a background error, recover true source flux, or confirm or reject a planet. It supplies a reproducible diagnostic for one faint candidate and a limit on the image interpretation. The package preserves source data, provenance, code, numerical checks, results, and figures.

TESS · T16 · TIC 308453016 · background · image subtraction · transit candidates · photometry · reproducible research