[LEAPSECS] stale leap second information

[Rob Seaman]

On Jan 13, 2015, at 6:10 AM, Brooks Harris <brooks at edlmax.com> wrote:

> On 2015-01-12 06:42 PM, Rob Seaman wrote:
>> On Jan 12, 2015, at 2:53 PM, Martin Burnicki <martin.burnicki at meinberg.de> wrote:
>> 
>>> I've suggested at various occasions that the IERS should be the authoritative source for a leap second file.
>> There were discussions at both the 2013 and 2011 UTC meetings
> Which meetings? I mean, what standards body?

Institutions other than standards bodies are interested in this issue.  See sponsors at the bottom of:

	http://futureofutc.org

The proceedings were published by the American Astronautical Society.

> If I understand the provenance, BIPM is responsible for maintaining atomic time and TAI, IERS is responsible maintaining for UT1 and Leap Seconds, and ITU is responsible for "time dissemination". Whats not so clear, and it would be reassuring to know, is how the information is officially shared between these bodies and to what degree its automated.
> 
> If ITU is responsible for "time dissemination" it would seem like they should also be responsible for "time metadata dissemination", ie: Leap Second announcements, history, and related.

The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations.  ITU-R TF.460.6 (and predecessors / successors) is a purely a recommendation.  Others can comment on whether the ITU has any actual operational role in disseminating time.

More fundamental than any operational or standards body is physical reality.  It is simply a fact that a day on Earth and on other terrestrial bodies in the solar system means a synodic day, i.e., mean solar time.  How that fact is incorporated into standards is a matter for debate, but real world constraints (e.g., the speed of light, Ohm's Law, etc.) apply to all standards.

Better communication and clearer roles between the various organizations would likely be welcomed by all.

Rob