[Adass-announce] Requirements for UTC and Civil Timekeeping

[Rob Seaman]

Meeting announcement of interest to the ADASS community:

	Requirements for UTC and Civil Timekeeping
	Jefferson Scholars Foundation
	University of Virginia
	29-31 May 2013

	Abstracts due:  22 Feb 2013

	http://futureofutc.org     (w/ preprints from the 2011 meeting)

In January 2012, the International Telecommunication Union received a long-simmering proposal to redefine Coordinated Universal Time to eliminate leap seconds.  At the eleventh hour, the proposal was returned to the study group for - well - further study, pending a vote at the next ITU World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015.  These studies include this meeting, as well as the formation of an IAU UTC Working Group.

Leap seconds may be the definition of an esoteric issue.  But the resulting Universal Time is ubiquitous in society.  And systems and software designed and maintained by the ADASS community are the canaries in the coal mine for changes to UTC.  Indeed the proposal is precisely that UTC would no longer function as Universal Time (mean solar time at Greenwich).  Astronomical algorithms would have to adapt.  New community infrastructure would be needed to convey time signals.  As with Y2K, inventories would be needed to discover which astronomical systems would break and which software would need to be rewritten.

What about TAI?  It has been stated that International Atomic Time (TAI) would be deprecated following this change.  And GPS?  Operators of the GPS ground network estimate redefining UTC would cost them $100M.

Want to know more?  Read the white paper:

	http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/futureofutc/2011/preprints/01_AAS_11-660.pdf

Want to do something?  This meeting is an opportunity to help steer decision-making, and whether or not the decision is to go forward with this plan, it is a chance to work on the next generation standards and protocols for every clock on the planet, including those at observatories and astronomical data centers.

Would really rather know less?  As with climate change you may have no choice.

Rob Seaman
NOAO