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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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
