[LEAPSECS] IERS Message No. 129: Plots of Earth Orientation Data (fwd)

[Rob Seaman]

On Apr 9, 2008, at 6:53 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:


> And the interesting one of course is:

>

> 	http://www.iers.org/plots/FinalsAllIAU1980-UT1-UTC-BULA.png



This is an up to date version of the first figure (labeled figure 3)  
from my screed of exactly seven years ago today:

	http://iraf.noao.edu/~seaman/leap

Remarkable how issues that aren't resolved keep coming back at you :-)

How to optimize the scheduling algorithm for leap seconds has always  
been one of the more interesting - and potentially more productive -  
questions, whether it is your 10 year look ahead or the other extreme  
of permitting monthly leap seconds as I described.

What clever chap was it who suggested ALWAYS having a leap second at  
the end of each month - toggling positive and negative?  An actual  
leap transition then becomes the omission of a (negative) leap.  Since  
systems would have to deal with the monthly cadence they would be  
forced to work correctly.  (Evolution trumps design any day.)  And  
since a leap would be the absence of an event, nothing would break.

More to the point, all of these strategies are permitted under the  
current UTC standard :-)


> Should we make an informal bet on when the next leap second happens ?


I'll take December 2008.  A Carlsberg Elephant (what do the locals  
drink?) versus your choice from the Nimbus brewery in Tucson?

Rob
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http://nimbusbeer.qwestoffice.net/thebeers.html