[LEAPSECS] a modest proposal

[Steve Allen]

On Mon 2008-02-11T10:40:32 -0800, Steve Allen hath writ:

> On Mon 2008-02-11T13:31:17 +0000, Tony Finch hath writ:

> > Surely its work on the ITRF is still needed for satellite navigation.

>

> Agreed, but somehow I get the impression that will not catch the

> attention of legislators and bureaucrats nearly as well as pointing

> out that their earth rotation measurements directly affect how they

> set their watches.  I expect the IERS would lose a lot of visibility

> and political clout without leap seconds.


Upon further consideration, I'm not sure I agree.  For the purposes of
satellite navigation there is not need for the terrestrial reference
frame to be tightly tied to the celestial reference frame.  Achieving
accuracy of 1 meter certainly doesn't care about rapid changes of
earth orientation parameters with respect to the quasars, only with
respect to the satellites.  So it could be argued that the need for
VLBI campaigns would become a scientific extravagance no longer
relevant to civil life.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory        Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99855
University of California    Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/     Hgt +250 m