[LEAPSECS] Fwd: IERS Message No. 282: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to retain "leap second"

Steve Allen sla at ucolick.org
Mon Nov 23 14:31:04 EST 2015


On Mon 2015-11-23T18:19:53 +0000, Poul-Henning Kamp hath writ:
> In message <D278BF58.FC5B%kevin.birth at qc.cuny.edu>, Kevin Birth writes:
>
> >Am I reading this correctly that studies will be conducted by the usual
> >suspects in hopes that after all these years of their studying and discussing
> >leap seconds a different result will be produced by 2023?
>
> No, you are not reading it correctly.
>
> "For further study" is an ITU term of art for things they have dropped.

Other press releases indicate that we have yet to see the new text of
Radio Regulation 1.14 will read.  That will give other clues about
what will happen in 2023.

Radio Regulation 1.14 is not to be confused with WRC-15 Agenda Item 1.14.
It currently reads

    1.14
    Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): Time scale, based on the second
    (SI), as defined in Recommendation ITU-R TF.460-6.  (WRC-03)

    For most practical purposes associated with the Radio Regulations,
    UTC is equivalent to mean solar time at the prime meridian
    (0 longitude), formerly expressed in GMT.

At least one proposal submitted to WRC wanted to remove the words
about mean solar time while preserving the words about meridian and
longitude.  The resulting text was incongruous nonsense trying to
indicate some connection between longitude and atomic time.  I hope
the final result of WRC makes more sense than the proposal I saw.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>               WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB   Natural Sciences II, Room 165   Lat  +36.99855
1156 High Street            Voice: +1 831 459 3046          Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/    Hgt +250 m


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