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This feature will only work if you know the storm center near the time the message(s) you are decoding was taken. This is a very advanced feature that you must truly understand before you use or it will otherwise be very incorrect.
The center of the storm is almost always moving at various speeds. In the span of 10 minutes, a normal recording interval of HDOB messages, the storm may move several miles. Therefore, even if the center is located within the observation, the other observations in the message will be wrong to a various degree. It will usually be just a mile or two in this case. This is why it is important to make sure the center position you enter is very close to the observation times in the message(s). You should never use a center coordinate that is more than 20 minutes older or newer than the HDOB message observations you want to decode unless the storm is moving very slow or not at all.
The best way to get the center is to wait until an HDOB message contains it. The center will usually be noted by the lowest extrapolated pressure of the storm. You will notice a drop and then a rebound when the center is fixed by recon. This is not always the case however, since these pressure estimates are usually slightly off and can sometimes even be very wrong. Make sure you also observe a wind shift. You could also just wait for the vortex message.
Once you get the coordinates from the decoded recon message, return to the decoder and submit the message again, only this time use the coordinates you got. This is the best way.
For areas of the storm that are not close to the center and therefore do not contain a recent center fix, you may want to use something like CIMSS ADT position estimates done every half hour. (which only has storms depression strength or greater and is not available when satellites are in eclipse mode) However, these are only position estimates and could be very off. In addition, you must once again make sure that the time the position estimate was calculated is close to the message(s) you are decoding. You may also want to view the CIMSS position noted in the satellite image provided from their site to make sure the center position is clearly noted. Note that a complete list of past center estimates is given in the "History File Listing."
Other center position estimates may not work as well. HDOB positions are very accurate to the second decimal place. CIMSS estimates are also available to the second decimal place, but they are less precise. Other center position estimates may be rounded to one decimal place. Keep that in mind as well.
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