ITU-R SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR GROUP ON THE FUTURE OF THE UTC TIME SCALE

摘要

As a result of issues raised by sector members of the ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union -Radiocommunications) and a letter from the Director of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) to the Secretary General of the ITU, a new question, ITU-R 236/7 (2000) "The Future of the UTC Timescale," was generated by ITU-R Study Group 7 (Science Services) Working Party 7A (Standard Frequency and Time Signal Services). The question considers the definition and future use of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in the ITU-R Recommendations. A major change to the UTC timescale as defined in the current recommendations could have a potentially significant impact on broadcast time and frequency services, synchronization of communications networks, navigation systems, and time distribution performance. Accordingly, Study Group 7, Working Party 7A has established a Special Rapporteur Group (SRG) to specifically address the question of the future of the UTC timescale, the associated leap second, and related issues. The SRG has held coordination and technical exchange meetings to gather pertinent data and discuss alternative approaches to the issues. The result of these efforts had not produced sufficient information for analysis of alternatives nor produced a clearly defined course of action. However, the SRG wanted to present results and discuss viable alternatives with representative parties that had come forth as a result of these activities. For that purpose, the SRG organized a Special Colloquium for deliberating and reporting on these issues to the ITU-R.