[LEAPSECS] ISO TC37 statement (suggestion)

[Markus Kuhn]

"Finkleman, Dave" wrote on 2012-01-07 17:24 UTC:

> We will receive on Monday (I hope) from ISO TC37 an expert and

> attributable statement that if the time scale changes as recommended, it

> cannot retain the term UTC.   I am diligently seeking to submit this for

> record or in person at the Radio Assembly and WRC.


May I suggest to go slightly further and also recommend to the Radio
Assembly and WRC that the proposed future leap-free ITU time scale is

  (a) chosen such that it differs in the foreseeable future from UT1
      by at least 30 seconds, for safety reasons, so as to make it
      easily distinguishable for humans who visually compare concurrent
      precision timestamps in both UTC and the new leap-free scale;

  (b) chosen to differ from UTC by an integral number of seconds;

  (c) chosen to approximates UT1 in early 1958, to both retain
      consistency with existing practice and also to recognize
      the work of the earliest operators of atomic clocks
      around that time;

  (d) widely disseminated by time broadcasting signals along with
      the existing time scale UTC in a backwards-compatible manner,
      for a transition period of at least 50 years, to assist users
      in evaluation and migration;

  (e) called "International Atomic Time" (or "Temps Atomique International", TAI).

I'd hope none of that proposal to be very controversial or disruptive,
and in fact would be keen to see rapid implementation.

Markus

-- 
Markus Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ || CB3 0FD, Great Britain