Estimating Microwave Delay by Atmospheric Water

Tropospheric path delays for microwave very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) estimated with algorithm that determines and explicitly integrates simple water-vapor distribution based on temperature data from water-vapor radiometer (WVR) and emission model. Although computationally complex, method readily accommodates even dramatic changes in observation conditions, emission model, and WVR equipment. Algorithm accommodates changes in observation conditions, emission model, and radiometer hardware.