[LEAPSECS] the big artillery

[Michael Deckers]

    On 2014-11-05 16:27, Zefram wrote:

> .......................................................  UTC is always
> an integral number of seconds offset from TAI, and so by construction
> UTC(NPL) is always an integral number of seconds offset from TAI(NPL).
> Hence each of the marks also occurs at the top of a second of TAI(NPL).

   The symbol TAI(k) is defined in
       RECOMMENDATION ITU-R TF.536-2: Time-scale notations
   of 2003 with the text:

   TAI(k): Time-scale realized by the institute “k” and defined
           by the relation TAI(k) = UTC(k) + DTAI, where DTAI
           is the number of integral seconds specified by the
           International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) as
           being the difference between UTC and TAI;

   I do not know whether that notation has ever been put
   to serious use outside this recommendation.

   The contributions by the various metrology institutes to TAI
   are independent from the UTC(k) and are denoted by TA(k) in
   Circular T by the BIPM. The recommendation explains it as:

   TA(k): Atomic Time-scale, as realized by the institute “k”;

   Michael Deckers.