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The Future of UTC Leap Seconds (fwd)
From: Richard B. Langley
Date: 2005 Jul 5, 09:38 -0300
From: Richard B. Langley
Date: 2005 Jul 5, 09:38 -0300
More on the future of UTC leap seconds. -- Richard Langley =============================================================================== Richard B. Langley E-mail: lang@unb.ca Geodetic Research Laboratory Web: http://www.unb.ca/GGE/ Dept. of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering Phone: +1 506 453-5142 University of New Brunswick Fax: +1 506 453-4943 Fredericton, N.B., Canada E3B 5A3 Fredericton? Where's that? See: http://www.city.fredericton.nb.ca/ =============================================================================== ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 09:34:28 -0300 From: Richard LangleyTo: CANSPACE@listserv.unb.ca Subject: The Future of UTC Leap Seconds July 2005 Letter to IERS Bulletins C and D users Dear colleague, As you are probably aware, international discussions are in progress on a redefinition of UTC, including a possible suppression of the leap seconds procedure. To reply to the request of several international organizations on a possible evolution of UTC the International Telecommunication Union, ITU decided in October 2000 the creation of a Working Group called "Special Rapporteur Group", SRG chaired by Mr Ron Beard of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL- USA), in charge of studying by a large consultation the different possible solutions. The SRG reports its conclusions to the ITU working party WP-7A. The Special Rapporteur Group (SRG) organized a colloquium in Torino, Italy in May 2003. No general agreement emerged from this colloquium. In parallel, the US delegation to the WP-7A submitted, at the last meeting in Geneva in October 2004, a proposal which contained the following items: 1 - Maintenance of a time scale called UTC. 2 - Suppression of the leap seconds adjustments which maintains UTC close to UT1, a time scale based on the Earth's rotation (currently UT1-UTC < .9 s) 3 - The difference of UT1 from UTC should not exceed 1 hour. 4 - The change should take effect at 21 December 2007, 00:00 UTC If your activity is affected by the content of the US proposal which will be discussed in November 2005 at the WP-7A, you are urged to react. This could be the last opportunity before a recommendation is issued by the WP-7A. If you wish you can express your opinion to your representative(s) at the WP-7A of ITU (for the list see the ITU website, http://www.itu.int/home/ index.html) with a copy to Daniel Gambis (daniel.gambis@obspm.fr), IERS EOP Center. Daniel Gambis Head Earth Orientation Center of the IERS Observatoire de Paris [To from CANSPACE, send the following message to (DO NOT send it to CANSPACE) using the same e-mail address you used to subscribe to CANSPACE initially: SIGNOFF CANSPACE. If you do not receive a confirmation within a day or so, re-send your request to .]