Le 12 juil. 2013 à 14:57, Rob Seaman a écrit :

> FYI.
> 
> The direct link is:
> 
>       
> http://www.iers.org/nn_317904/SharedDocs/Publikationen/EN/IERS/Documents/IERS__Leap__Seconds,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/IERS_Leap_Seconds.pdf
> 
> Presumably all parties will welcome the IERS improving its products:
> 
>> Future considerations
>> 
>> In recognition of rapidly changing technology, the IERS recently held a 
>> retreat in order to better position the IERS to meet the emerging needs of 
>> its users. As part of this retreat, the IERS agreed to create new products, 
>> utilizing more modern data file formats that should improve usability of the 
>> IERS data. In addition, the IERS will investigate the possibility of 
>> creating a real-time EOP transfer protocol. This latter product would 
>> provide UT1 directly to users that currently choose to approximate UT1 using 
>> UTC. It would have the advantage of maintaining the same simplicity of 
>> implementation that users currently enjoy while increasing the accuracy of 
>> the data by more than four orders of magnitude at no cost to the user. The 
>> IERS is prepared to meet any future requirements of users by the most 
>> convenient means.

 Excellent news. Maybe they should be clear on some requirements before 
creating a protocol. I wonder how they are going to go about selecting them.
 
> And presumably all parties will welcome a schedule to pin down the precise 
> meaning of "future".
>  It seems a general rule that infrastructure should be deployed and tested 
> before being required operationally.

> 
> However, "whether the current definition of UTC is retained or whether UTC is 
> redefined to eliminate leap seconds" are not the only two positions on the 
> issues.  For instance, such improvements would equally well support the 2003 
> Torino consensus of creating and disseminating a new time scale, 
> "International Time".  Among other things, this would permit the current 
> definition of UTC to be retained for backwards compatibility, mitigating many 
> risks.
> 
> Also users (and their customers) didn't just happen to "choose to approximate 
> UT1 using UTC", rather this choice was made for them.  UTC was created for 
> this purpose: "GMT may be regarded as the general equivalent of UT."  The 
> family of Universal Time is a spectrum of solar time scales.
> 
> The ITU should create different time scales absent the long established 
> sobriquet of "Universal Time" for any newly conceived non-solar 
> radio-communications purpose(s) – or perhaps consider disseminating a 
> TAI(ITU) directly.  The most efficient and least risky solution is to focus 
> incrementally on improving support for current time scales.

I don't think that the ITU are a good choice for creating time scales. I think 
they should be just charged with defining dissemination. 

> 
> Many thanks to the IERS for seeking to quiet the confusion that the ITU-R has 
> brought to civil timekeeping.

echo that, though I would replace "confusion" with "controversy". It is hardly 
their fault that humans can't integrate a very simple solution to maintaining 
civil time roughly equal to UT1. 

> 
> Rob
> --
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: <[email protected]>
>> Subject: IERS Message No. 233: The Role of the IERS in the Leap Second
>> Date: July 11, 2013 11:20:09 PM MST
>> To: <[email protected]>
>> 
>> ************************************************************************
>> IERS Message No. 233                                       July 12, 2013
>> ************************************************************************
>> 
>> 
>> The Role of the IERS in the Leap Second
>> 
>> 
>> An article by Brian Luzum, Chair of IERS Directing Board, on "The Role
>> of the IERS in the Leap Second", will be published in the ITU News
>> Magazine. A preview version of this article is now available at
>> 
>> http://www.iers.org/biblio
>> 
>> 
>> The summary reads:
>> 
>> The IERS has served the international scientific community and
>> operationally oriented efforts through its service for more than
>> twenty-five years. This includes providing Earth orientation
>> information, algorithms and software to utilize EOPs, and leap second
>> notifications to the world. With recent efforts, the IERS has positioned
>> itself to more completely serve the needs of its users whether the
>> current definition of UTC is retained or whether UTC is redefined to
>> eliminate leap seconds. Either way, the ITU can rely on the IERS to
>> support its users with the data and software needed.
>> 
>> Kind regards,
>> IERS Central Bureau
>> 
>> 
>> ************************************************************************
>> IERS Messages are edited and distributed by the IERS Central Bureau.
>> If not stated otherwise, the IERS is only the distributor of the message
>> and is not responsible for its content.
>> To submit texts for distribution and to subscribe or unsubscribe,
>> please write to <[email protected]>.
>> Archives: http://www.iers.org/Messages/
>> ************************************************************************
> _______________________________________________
> LEAPSECS mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs

_______________________________________________
LEAPSECS mailing list
[email protected]
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs

Reply via email to