Since several RFCs rely on UTC and leap seconds (3339, 4765, 5905,
etc), this questionnaire may be of interest for some persons [the Web
page mentions two articles, if you are in a hurry, the first one is
the PRO and the second one the CON]. One more week to comment.
http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/index.php?index=questionnaire
QUESTIONNAIRE TO SURVEY OPINION CONCERNING A POSSIBLE REDEFINITION OF UTC
Universal Time, the conventional measure of Earth rotation is the traditional
basis for civil timekeeping. Clocks worldwide are synchronized via Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC), an atomic time scale recommended by the
Radiocommunications Sector of the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU-R) and calculated by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)
on the basis of atomic clock data from around the world.
UTC is computed from TAI by the introduction of leap seconds such that UTC is
maintained within 1 second of UT1. Since 1972, these leap seconds have been
added on December 31 or June 30, at the rate of about one every 18 months.
Since 1 January 2009, 0:00 UTC, UTC-TAI= -34s.
After years of discussions within the scientific community, a proposal to
fundamentally redefine UTC will come to a conclusive vote in January 2012 at
the ITU-R in Geneva. If this proposal is approved, it would be effective five
years later. It would halt the intercalary adjustments known as leap seconds
that maintain UTC as a form of Universal Time.
Then, UTC would not keep pace with Earth rotation and the value of DUT1 would
become unconstrained.Therefore UTC would no longer be directly useful for
various technical applications which rely on it being less than 1 second from
UT1. Such applications would require a separate access to UT1, such as through
the publication of DUT1 by other means.
The objective of the survey is to find out the strength of opinion for
maintaining or changing the present system.
Your response is appreciated before 31 August 2011
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