Stopping the leap second

[mendip_discovery]

Just reading that BPIM have decided to scrap the leap second.

Fearing that we may end up doing a negative leap second to correct things.

Human readable,
https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/22/leap_seconds_discontinued/

TimeNuts,
https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/64811223/Resolutions-2022.pdf/281f3160-fc56-3e63-dbf7-77b76500990f

EDIT: To fix a broken link.

[coppercone2]

whats the worst that can happen?

[Stray Electron]

whats the worst that can happen?

   The WORST?  On paper we will all lose 1 second out our lives. But I suppose that to a bean counter that 1 second each times 8 billion people is a very significant number of man-years* so they will argue that that is enough to justify banning leap-seconds.

 * I'll let someone else do the math.

[nctnico]

Good riddance! Now let's get rid of summer & winter time.

[coppercone2]

whats the worst that can happen?

   The WORST?  On paper we will all lose 1 second out our lives. But I suppose that to a bean counter that 1 second each times 8 billion people is a very significant number of man-years* so they will argue that that is enough to justify banning leap-seconds.

 * I'll let someone else do the math.

I am just waiting for a new Y2K in 20 years caused by this, my gut feeling says not to mess with it.

[Kleinstein]

Stopping the use of leap seconds should not cause any Y2K like problems. There is a slim chance a few systems may get upset with a negative leap second, but this would be a temporary problem - nothing Y2K like.

Gitting rid of the leap seconds would cause the astronomical / solar time to be out of sync with the leagal time. Normal people would not really notice unless it sums up to a large difference. This is not expected to happen in the next 1000 years. A few people in astronomy may have to add the time shift in the few cases they really need it. Chances are this would only be a minor nuancis and even they would often not really mind the difference. Maybe delay the maned flight to mars by a few seconds.

[jpanhalt]

Leap seconds and leap years are real adjustments needed to keep Earth time observed by humans synced with Solar time.  If enough negative leap seconds are ignored, then in time, we will need a negative leap year, or maybe a negative leap month long before that.  (I realize there will probably be much bigger problems for the human species before that happens.)

As for Summer and Winter time, I am all for eliminating them entirely.  They are entirely artificial.  In the US, there is a push by our politicians (both parties) to make Summer time (aka DST) permanent.  I am strongly opposed to that.  Not surprisingly, one of its proponents is a politician from Texas (very South state).  He is supposed to be very bright but apparently doesn't appreciate the dangers to school bus riders at 7AM from late October to March in our more northern states like Ohio, particularly in rural areas with 2-lane roads and 55 mph speed limits.  It is pitch dark at those times when on DST and you see a lot of cars fail to stop for those buses. 

[DavidKo]

...
As for Summer and Winter time, I am all for eliminating them entirely.  They are entirely artificial.  In the US, there is a push by our politicians (both parties) to make Summer time (aka DST) permanent.  I am strongly opposed to that.  Not surprisingly, one of its proponents is a politician from Texas (very South state).  He is supposed to be very bright but apparently doesn't appreciate the dangers to school bus riders at 7AM from late October to March in our more northern states like Ohio, particularly in rural areas with 2-lane roads and 55 mph speed limits.  It is pitch dark at those times when on DST and you see a lot of cars fail to stop for those buses.

It is nonsense to discuss which time you will take. There will be always 1h difference between meridians and what is good for one meridian that will be bad for some people close +1h or -1 h. Most painful it will be for people behind the meridians. I must say that in winter it is visible when I travel to west Germany from east Czech. This sh.tt. discussions stopped the cancelation of summer/winter time in EU which is placed in 3 time zones. Who cares what time you have when you need to adjust the time during travel. When the country wants different time than she should use time which she wants. Instead of canceling the changes, we will indefinitely discuss if summer or winter time is better like total idiots. I think that in democracy it will never be solved - Russia solved that without issues in 2010. US and EU have only discussions if one or another is better.

[mfro]

   The WORST?  On paper we will all lose 1 second out our lives.

Actually, it would be more than that for many as there are still lots of stupid systems around (SAP, for example, being one of the most prominent ones) that can't deal with backward adjustments as they would then potentially start scheduled tasks multiple times and other nonsense. You actually have to shut down such systems during the adjustment (regardless if it would be just 1 second only or one hour (summer time switch)).

[TheSteve]

I will miss the leap second. A place I once worked at had millions of users using systems all synchronized via GPS. The first time a leap second was happening with the deployed system was a pretty big deal. Lots of engineers in the office overnight in case there was an issue. It was well tested and there were no issues but if there had been, it would have been so very ugly.

[maat]

IMHO, good riddance.

Time should be monotonic. This solves the issue of keeping lists with leap seconds, that must be regularly updated... UTC should be locked to TAI.

This makes logging data a lot more sensible. The DST nonsense requires you to plot data in UTC to prevent either discontinuities or weird time axes twice a year. But since they fiddle with UTC as well means more gymnastics.

Assuming a linear trend, earth slows down by about 10 mins in 1000 years. So I guess people in 1000 years will be smart enough to, at one day, move lunch to 1210. Life doesn't really care about time at those scales, so I would rather see timekeeping optimized for instruments...

[coppercone2]

I will miss the leap second. A place I once worked at had millions of users using systems all synchronized via GPS. The first time a leap second was happening with the deployed system was a pretty big deal. Lots of engineers in the office overnight in case there was an issue. It was well tested and there were no issues but if there had been, it would have been so very ugly.

exactly what I mean, its a global change, for real

[mendip_discovery]

First chance I have had to read the CPIM document,

Resolution 4

On the use and future development of UTC

The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), at its 27th meeting,
recalling that

• Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a time scale produced by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) with the same rate as International Atomic Time (TAI), but differing from TAI only by an integral number of seconds,
• the offset by an integral number of seconds is due to the agreement maintained between UTC and the time scale describing the angular rotation of the Earth (UT1),
• when the difference (UT1-UTC), as observed by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), is predicted to approach 0.9 seconds, a leap second is applied according to the procedure described in Recommendation ITU-R TF.460-6 of the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R),

further recalling that the CGPM at its 26th meeting (2018)

• stated that UTC is the only recommended time scale for international reference and the basis of civil time in most countries,
• recommended all relevant unions and organizations to work together to develop a common understanding on the realization and dissemination of reference time scales with a view to considering the present limitation on the maximum magnitude of UT1 ˗ UTC to meet the needs of the current and future user communities,

welcoming the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding between the BIPM and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which ensures that they continue their joint work to improve global access to UTC,
noting that

• the accepted maximum value of the difference (UT1-UTC) has been under discussion for many years because the consequent introduction of leap seconds creates discontinuities that risk causing serious malfunctions in critical digital infrastructure including the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs), telecommunications, and energy transmission systems,
• operators of digital networks and GNSSs have developed and applied different methods to introduce the leap second, which do not follow any agreed standards,
• the implementation of these different uncoordinated methods threatens the resilience of the synchronization capabilities that underpin critical national infrastructures,
• the use of these different methods leads to confusion that puts at risk the recognition of UTC as the unique reference time scale and also the role of National Metrology Institutes (and Designated Institutes) as sources of traceability to national and international metrological standards,
• recent observations on the rotation rate of the Earth indicate the possible need for the first negative leap second whose insertion has never been foreseen or tested,
• the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency (CCTF) has conducted an extensive survey amongst metrological, scientific and technology institutions, and other stakeholders, and the feedback has confirmed the understanding that actions should be taken to address the discontinuities in UTC,

recognizing that the use of UTC as the unique reference time scale for all applications, including advanced digital networks and satellite systems, calls for its clear and unambiguous specification as a continuous time scale, with a well-understood traceability chain,
decides that the maximum value for the difference (UT1-UTC) will be increased in, or before, 2035, requests that the CIPM consult with the ITU, and other organizations that may be impacted by this decision in order to

• propose a new maximum value for the difference (UT1-UTC) that will ensure the continuity of UTC for at least a century,
• prepare a plan to implement by, or before, 2035 the proposed new maximum value for the difference (UT1-UTC),
• propose a time period for the review by the CGPM of the new maximum value following its implementation, so that it can maintain control on the applicability and acceptability of the value implemented,
• draft a resolution including these proposals for agreement at the 28th meeting of the CGPM (2026),

encourages the BIPM to work with relevant organizations to identify the need for updates in the different services that disseminate the value of the difference (UT1-UTC) and to ensure the correct understanding and use of the new maximum value.

So all I can see is they are thinking that making these adjustments all the time isn't actually helping and is possibly causing issues that may cause rather negative impacts on the use of UTC. Especially if they have the step back for a second. That could be rather y2k ish.

Recently over at https://www.blitzortung.org they had a significant number of detectors go down due to a rollover issue on GPS chips they use so its a problem that can still get us after we learnt from y2k.

I actually like the Daylight Saving changes. They are a good excuse for people to go around adjusting clocks.

I note that the next resolution is also time related and on the subject of the second,

optical frequency standards based on different species and transitions in many National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) have surpassed the accuracy achievable by the realization of the current definition by a  factor of up to 100,

and

the reliability and uncertainty of the related time and frequency transfers are improving significantly,

and

some institutes have demonstrated that time scales based on one or more optical frequency standards have the potential to be more accurate than the time scale based on the current definition of the second,

The day is going to widen its specifications while the second is possibly getting a tighter specification.