[LEAPSECS] ITU-R SG7 to consider UTC on October 4

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <4C5B1F1D.4060607 at comcast.net>
            ashtongj <ashtongj at comcast.net> writes:

: (I'm sorry for any duplication, I meant to send this to the group.)

: 

: McCarthy and Seidelmann, on page 17 of _TIME: From Earth Rotation to

: Atomic Physics_ (2009) state "GMT is still used as the official time

: scale of the United Kingdom and in some communication systems as UTC."


In one of these mailing lists, there was a debate about NASA using the
term "GMT" when they really meant "UTC".  There were many different
references cited during that debate.  One of them indicated that even
in the UK there's not a clear distinction between GMT and UTC and
often (but not always?) the terms are used interchangeably.  UTC being
viewed as just another way to realize GMT with some small, trivial
error for the real pendants.  Evidently, the 0 meridian (as defined by
GPS) don't fall precisely where it used to, so the observatory that
made the measurements is a little off.

But my memory is hazy on this, and a quick search of my email archive
is unenlightening.


: I have also read, although I do not recall exactly where, that the UK

: Parliament debated changing the law to specify that the basis of time

: was UTC, but in the end no action was taken.


That I don't know about.

Warner


: On 2010-08-05 3:17 PM, Jonathan E. Hardis wrote:

: > On Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:54:49 -0400

: > ashtongj <ashtongj at comcast.net> wrote:

: >> If the leap second is dropped, the change will become perceptible to

: >> ordinary voters, especially when there are several seconds difference

: >> in the seconds field of legal time in the U.S. compared to some other

: >> countries.

: >

: > The 15th Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (the formal body

: > formed by the Treaty of the Meter) “strongly endorsed” the usage of

: > UTC

: > as the basis of civil time among the signatory nations and throughout

: > the world.

: >

: > What countries do you think are using UT1 (or another time scale with

: > an

: > astronomical basis) for their legal time, and which would therefore

: > drift away from those using UTC?

: >

: > - Jonathan

: >

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