(Source: Time and Date)
Enjoy the heat for one extra second
Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) gave summer lovers a gift yesterday when it added an extra second of time to its atomic clocks at precisely 59 seconds after midnight.
The extra second was needed to keep the atomic clock-based international time standard on pace with the Earth's fickle spin. The problem is that the Earth does not rotate at a steady rate. But according to the basis of mankind's notion of time, the sun should be midway overhead at noon. To keep these two measures from diverging, the NPL at Teddington, United Kingdom must borrow or lend from the time bank at times to keep the two synchronized.
Peter Whibberley, Senior Research Scientist in NPL's Time and Frequency Group, comments, "The purpose of leap seconds is to make sure our time scale based on atomic clocks remains in step with the time based on the Earth's rotation. The Earth is a poor timekeeper compared to our clocks, and its rotation changes unpredictably due to changes in its atmosphere and molten core. The leap second correction to our atomic clocks means we get an extra second of summer time."
But before critics cry out about "ivory tower" academics and their trivialities, there are actually serious requirements that drive these adjustments. Since the 1960s, scientific researchers have used the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as the "official" Earth time. That time is based on multiple precisely synchronized atomic clocks. The UTC is the primary time which satellites and time-dependent scientific experiments are synced to.
Precisely synchronized time is necessary to keep the wealth of satellites healthy and communicating. [Image Source: Orbitcast]
At the same time, many scientists and engineers rely on the time as a reliable reflection of astronomical events, so the atomic clock UTC time must be kept in lock-step with the astronomic time. If the two fall out of sync, experiments and commercial ventures could go badly awry. As they say, timing is everything.
Despite the benefits, some would rather hold off on adding leap seconds, waiting until larger discrepancies before making an adjustment. The U.S. government is among the critics of the leap second. They argue that leap seconds create timing difficulties for computer systems -- much like the infamous "Y2K" dilemma.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is currently debating a U.S.-led proposal to scrap the leap second. But that debate was shelved until 2015.
In the meantime, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) voted that this summer's leap second would go ahead just as planned.
Source: NPL
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