Hi Ted. Yes, that would be my understanding. It might also be worth pointing out that redefining UTC would not improve access to unsegmented timescales (that is, without leaps) since projects and systems can already use TAI, GPS and related timescales. Rather, all it would accomplish is to eliminate straightforward access to mean solar time. As a result confusion would increase, not decrease.

Thanks Rob. Does this suggest that eliminating the leap second is just trading one set of technical problems (software that cannot handle discontinuities, for example) for another (software that assumes that UTC approximates UT)?

For example, astronomers and astronautical engineers have made the natural assumption throughout their software and systems that Coordinated Universal Time is indeed a flavor of Universal Time, that is, an approximation to Greenwich Mean Time. If UTC is redefined to no longer reflect Earth orientation then a lot of our software will break. The software is not at fault, the naive standards process is.

Also see: http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/futureofutc/aas223/presentations/2-1-ISOterminologyAAS.pdf

Thank you, Nero, for the comment! I am not an expert (as should be apparent) and am not sure I understand why what you say is so. Can you explain?

“But it’s crazy to say that the internet and navigation systems should use their own non-official time!” Maybe, but not crazier in my view than defining official time in a way that lets it drift away from solar time. And anyway, the people who write the software and hardware that has trouble with leap seconds have it in their power to avoid the result if they want by fixing the software or hardware problems that make leap seconds difficult to deal with.

By the way, if you want to see the LEAPSECS list discussion, it’s here. My favorite comment: “Yeah, he’s entitled to his opinion, just like everybody else, but he doesn’t have any special standing for his opinion, which as others have pointed out, interfaces badly with reality.”

Thanks, Steve, for the comment. I have attended meetings of technical delegations from national governments in my own field as an invited observer, and I agree with you that there’s little plain talk, let alone poetry, at such gatherings. But time is one of the subjects that calls for plain talk and maybe even some poetry.