Hi  Chris,

Does the calendar system usually define whether leap-seconds are taken into 
account or not?  In other words, given knowledge of which calendar system is in 
use, could a library make the correct calculation?  Or is other information 
needed too?

Presumably this would only affect real-world calendars, and perhaps only UTC?

Cheers, Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] 
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lynnes, Christopher S. 
(GSFC-6102)
Sent: 19 August 2011 12:46
To: John Caron
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [CF-metadata] CDM calendar date handling

On Aug 18, 2011, at 6:23 PM, "John Caron" <[email protected]> wrote:

>> In order to do calculations
>> with times, which are often necessary, we need to be able to convert 
>> them into a form which has a fixed-length unit since a reference time 
>> (like udunits), even though that isn't the most convenient way to express 
>> them.
> I think that given two calendar dates in the same calendar, there will 
> be a well-defined # seconds between them.

Yes...and no. There is the question of leap seconds. In the satellite data 
world, most people account for them, but not everyone. Some (most?) off the 
shelf packages do not. 
--
Chris Lynnes
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata
_______________________________________________
CF-metadata mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.cgd.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/cf-metadata

Reply via email to