Phase correction of VLBI with water vapour radiometry

We demonstrate phase correction of 3-mm VLBI observations using the scanning 18-GHz to 26GHz water vapour radiometer (WVR) at Effelsberg and we demonstrate an absolute accuracy of 15-mm in zenith path delay by comparing with GPS and radiosondes. This accuracy should provide significant improvement in astrometric phase-referencing observations. It is not good enough for geodetic VLBI to replace the tropospheric delay estimation but could be used to remove short-term path-length fluctuations and so improve the geodetic observables. We discuss lessons learned and opportunities for further improvement.