On Tue 2005-12-20T15:20:15 +0000, Francois Meyer hath writ:
> The same paradigm suggests a new definition of UTC,
> strengthening its link to UT1 down to 0.09s, and
> switching from leap seconds to leap tenths of a
> second.
This would basically be reverting to the UTC of CCIR Recommendation
374 from the 1960s.
In this respect Essen was very right in 1968
http://www.bipm.org/metrologia/ViewArticle.jsp?VOLUME=4&PAGE=161-165
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0026-1394/4/4/003/
when he suggested that radio broadcasts of time signals should always
use atomic seconds. The previous scheme was inappropriate for
laboratory purposes and unmaintainable by the broadcasting agencies.
I agree that implementation of UT1 to a precision of better than one
second should be purely a software operation based on information
disseminated from IERS. The part we are missing is a decent
infrastructure to transmit the estimates of the difference. The
current system is dysfunctional because too many of its aspects rely
on communication technologies which have not changed since the 19th
century.
--
Steve Allen <sla_at_ucolick.org> WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99858
University of California Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06014
Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m
Received on Tue Dec 20 2005 - 10:07:47 PST