In correcting satellite doppler data for tropospheric effects, we have found that we can infer the precipitable water vapor (PWV) at the tracking site. The determination proceeds via a least squares fit of a refraction parameter, along with several others, to each 15-min pass of data. For its success the technique depends on having (1) an ephemeris for the satellite, (2) an analytic model for the refraction range effect that is good to a few centimeters. (3) doppler (range difference or cycle count) data with a noise level below 10 cm, and (4) a surface pressure/temperature measurement at the tracking site. The PWV is a byproduct of the computation necessary to correct the doppler data for tropospheric effects. We have tried for a number of years to reliably isolate the tropospheric refractive effect in the doppler shift measurement. It is only recently that we have succeeded in doing this. Our success is due to a formulation of the refraction integral that minimizes the necessity for explicity water vapor, for explicit water vapor, temperature, and pressure profiles.