[LEAPSECS] Reliability

[Rob Seaman]

Tony Finch wrote:


> I think for "real time" you mean "local civil time", and for "civil  

> time"

> you mean "atomic time".


Not precisely, but that's the gist.


> In the future that role would be taken by atomic time. Yes it won't  

> trivially relate to any kind

> of local time at any place on earth, like UTC and GMT, but that  

> isn't what we need it for.


This is the part I disagree with.  "Global civil time" (the underlying  
timescale for the numerous local civil time variants) needs to be  
stationary with respect to mean solar time.  The requirements for  
civil timekeeping are much broader than the technological issues (that  
we're all tediously familiar with).

Rob