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Re: ITC copped out on UTC again

2012-01-20 13:15:48
The earth's rate of rotation is not uniform, and the rate of change of
that rotation is not uniform, either.  For instance, I believe, one of
the major earthquakes recently caused a change in the earth's rotation
because of conservation of angular momentum.  ice cap melting may
cause similar changes.

So, predicting future rates and rate of change is not possible.

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Ofer Inbar <cos(_at_)aaaaa(_dot_)org> wrote:
If the main problem with leap seconds is their future
unpredictability, isn't there a compromise option between the status
quo and no more leap seconds?  Couldn't they come up with a fixed
schedule for leap seconds for many centuries at a time, based on
current predictions of approximately how many will be needed each
century?

That should be good enough to prevent real human-noticeable drift
between UTC and perceived day/night time.  If a correction is needed
because current predictions turn out to be wrong, it seems that could
be done very rarely, with centuries of lead time in changes to the
schedule.  Was anything like this considered at the international level?

[ I know this is not something the IETF can decide, of course ]
 -- Cos
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-- 
Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin
Principal Engineer
Corporate Standardization (US)
SISA
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