QUESTIONNAIRE TO SURVEY OPINION CONCERNING A POSSIBLE REDEFINITION OF UTC

Universal Time, the conventional measure of Earth rotation is the traditional basis for civil timekeeping. Clocks worldwide are synchronized via Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), an atomic time scale recommended by the Radiocommunications Sector of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-R) and calculated by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) on the basis of atomic clock data from around the world.

UTC is computed from TAI by the introduction of leap seconds such that UTC is maintained within 1 second of UT1. Since 1972, these leap seconds have been added on December 31 or June 30, at the rate of about one every 18 months. Since 1 January 2009, 0:00 UTC, UTC-TAI= -34s.

After years of discussions within the scientific community, a proposal to fundamentally redefine UTC will come to a conclusive vote in January 2012 at the ITU-R in Geneva. If this proposal is approved, it would be effective five years later. It would halt the intercalary adjustments known as leap seconds that maintain UTC as a form of Universal Time.
Then, UTC would not keep pace with Earth rotation and the value of DUT1 would become unconstrained.Therefore UTC would no longer be directly useful for various technical applications which rely on it being less than 1 second from UT1. Such applications would require a separate access to UT1, such as through the publication of DUT1 by other means.

The objective of the survey is to find out the strength of opinion for maintaining or changing the present system.

Your response is appreciated before 31 August 2011

Two references:
1 - Nelson, R.A., McCarthy, D.D., Malys, S., Levine, J., Guinot, B., Fliegel, H.F., Beard, R.L., and Bartholomew, T.R., ?The leap second: its history and possible future.? Metrologia, Vol. 38, 2001, pp. 509-529
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/time/metrologia-leapsecond.pdf

2 - Finkleman, D., Seago, J.H., and Seidelmann, P. K. The Debate over UTC and Leap Seconds. Proceedings of the AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference,Toronto, Canada, 2010.
http://www.agi.com/downloads/resources/user-resources/downloads/whitepapers/DebateOverUTCandLeapSeconds.pdf

QUESTIONNAIRE

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1 - Your identification

        Family Name (*): 

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2 - Field of activity (*)

        Astronomy/Astrophysics	
        Celestial mechanics	
	Geodesy			
        Geophysics		
        Navigation		
	Satellite communication	
        Space sciences		
        Telecommunication	
        Time laboratory		
  	Other     		


 Please select the response that best matches your user preferences
    
        
 I am satisfied with the current definition of UTC which includes leap second  

 I prefer that UTC be redefined as a uniformly increasing atomic timescale
     without leap seconds and constantly offset from TAI. Consequently, UTC would 
     increasingly diverge from the time of Earth's rotation (UT1).  
                
 I have another preference (comments?)


 I have no opinion or preference 


Comments (1600 char. Max)