How, and whether, to keep atomic time in sync with Earth's rotation is still up for debate.
Credit: Adam Smigielski/Getty
The decision was made by representatives from governments worldwide at the General Conference on Weights and Measures outside Paris on 18 November. It means that from 2035, or possibly earlier, astronomical time will be allowed to diverge by more than one second from coordinated universal time , which is based on the steady tick of atomic clocks. Since 1972, whenever the two time systems have drifted apart by more than 0.9 seconds, a leap second has been added.
The Russian system incorporates leap seconds, while the Global Position System and others already effectively ignore them. The decision means that Russia might need to install new satellites and ground stations, says Felicitas Arias, former director of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France.
There is a chance that the International Telecommunications Union could stymie plans to make the switch in 2035., and Arias says its working group agreed with the CGPM’s proposal. But the ITU remains in control of disseminating UTC, and could argue that the time is not right to make the change, she says. “This is the thing that makes us a little bit nervous.
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