SERVICE INTERNATIONAL DE LA ROTATION TERRESTRE
BUREAU CENTRAL DE L'IERS
OBSERVATOIRE DE PARIS
61, Av. de l'Observatoire 75014 PARIS (France)
Tel. : 33 (0) 1 40 51 22 26
FAX : 33 (0) 1 40 51 22 91
Internet : iers@obspm.fr
Paris, 17 July 1998
Bulletin C 16
To authorities responsible for
the measurement and distribution
of time
UTC TIME STEP
on the 1st of January 1999
A positive leap second will be introduced at the end of December 1998.
The sequence of dates of the UTC second markers will be:
1998 December 31, 23h 59m 59s
1998 December 31, 23h 59m 60s
1999 January 1, 0h 0m 0s
The difference between UTC and the International Atomic Time TAI is:
from 1997 July 1, 0h UTC, to 1999 January 1, 0h UTC : UTC-TAI = - 31s
from 1999 January 1, 0h UTC, until further notice : UTC-TAI = - 32s
Leap seconds can be introduced in UTC at the end of the months of
December or June, depending on the evolution of UT1-TAI. Bulletin C mailed
every six months, either to announce a time step in UTC, or to confirm that
there will be no time step at the next possible date.
Daniel GAMBIS
Director
Central Bureau of IERS
This will make a number of things easier in the future, as well as (finally!)
avoiding the Id-smashing problem which has plagued developers for so long.
Boy, I'm glad we're not using sup anymore. This update would have been
insane otherwise.
now identical with the distributed versions, which may cause some
abbreviations to change for people in obscure zones. (The abbreviations
can be changed again if need be.) It also changes the abbreviation
of Central European Time to `CET' from its previous value of `MET'
(a curious German-English hybrid). Finally, we have finally rid
ourselves of those nasty ZONE-DESCR comments, which were a maintenance
nightmare, in favor of the new zone.tab file. We are not using the
distribution's iso3166.tab file because we have our own list.
Obtained from: Arthur David Olson; ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov
Changed zones: Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Morocco, Sierra Leone,
South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Armenia, Myanmar, China, Taiwan, Hong
Kong, Macao, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan,
Kirgizstan, Lebanon, Mongolia, the Phillippines, Syria, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Australia, Kiribati, New Caledonia, New
Zealand, Vanuatu, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic,
Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey,
Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, the
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua,
Brazil, the Falkland Islands, Paraguay
Deleted zones: Asia/Tomsk (superseded by Asia/Krasnoyarsk)
Added zones: Asia/Aktau (area formerly part of Asia/Alma-Ata);
Asia/Krasnoyarsk (supersedes Asia/Tomsk); America/Glace_Bay (area
formerly part of America/Halifax); America/Thunder_Bay,
America/Nipigon, America/Rainy_River (areas formerly covered by
America/Montreal); America/Swift_Current (area formerly part of
America/Regina); America/Dawson_Creek (area formerly part of
America/Vancouver); America/Pangnirtung, America/Iqaluit,
America/Rankin_Inlet, America/Yellowknife, America/Inuvik,
America/Dawson (areas formerly part of America/Whitehorse)
is 1996 EC harmonization. Also, the following timezones have been renamed:
Asia/Frunze -> Asia/Bishkek
Pacific/Cocos -> Indian/Cocos
Pacific/Belau -> Pacific/Palau
America/Navajo -> America/Shiprock
and one new timezone has been added:
Australia/Canberra
