In addition, none of Earhart's radio reports of her position were likely accurate at the time of her transmission. Based upon her transit to Hawaii earlier in the world flight, it is clear that the broadcast positions were those previously taken before the time of transmission, sometimes up to 45 minutes earlier.
Somewhere in the TIGHAR archives is a report that I did documenting a Monte Carlo simulation of AE's flight, which contained two sets of tracks. First, I had to assume the entire fight navigation was done by dead reckoning. Secondly, the first flight path consisted of a DR course based upon what weather information she had before she left Lae, and assuming they corrected for cross-drift. The second flight path was based upon the actual weather reported after she left Lae, assuming the same corrections as the first path. With constraints of seeing a ship ahead near Nauru, a reported crossing over one of the intervening islands, and AE's radio broadcasts, when AE thinks she's close to Howland, the MC simulation shows she's substantially to the SW of Howland.