记录一下关于时间的详细介绍-CSDN博客

THE PHYSICAL TIME
The notion of time and its relation to space have intrigued scientists and philosophers since the
ancient days. According to the laws of physics and astronomy, real time is defined in terms of the
rotation of earth in the solar system. A solar second equals 1/86,400th part of a solar day, which is
the amount of time that the earth takes to complete one revolution around its own axis. This measure
of time is called the real time (also known as Newtonian time), and is the primary standard of time.
Our watches or other timekeeping devices are secondary standards that have to be calibrated with
respect to the primary standard.
Modern timekeepers use atomic clocks as a de-facto primary standard of time. As per this
standard, a second is precisely the time for 9,192,631,770 orbital transitions of the Cesium 133
atom. In actual practice, there is a slight discrepancy — 86,400 atomic seconds is approximately
3 msec less than a solar day, so when the discrepancy grows to about 1 sec, a leap second is added
to the atomic clock.
International Atomic Time (TAI) is an accurate time scale that reflects the weighted average of
the readings of nearly 300 atomic clocks in over fifty national laboratories worldwide. It has been
available since 1955, and became the international standard on which UTC (Coordinated Universal
Time) is based. UTC was introduced on January 1, 1972, following a decision taken by the 14th
General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM). The International Bureau of Weights and
Measures is in charge of the realization of TAI.
Coordinated Universal Time popularly known as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or Zulu time
differs from the local time by the number of hours of your time zone. In the US, the use of a
central server receiving the WWV shortwave signals from Fort Collins, Colorado and periodically
broadcasting the UTC-based local time to other timekeepers is quite common. In fact, inexpensive
clocks driven by these signals are now commercially available.
Another source of precise time is GPS (Global Positioning System). A system of 24 satellites
deployed in the earth’s orbit maintains accurate spatial coordinates, and provides precise time reference
almost everywhere on earth where GPS signals can be received. Each satellite broadcasts
the value of an on-board atomic clock. To use the GPS, a receiver must be able to receive signals
from at least four different satellites. While the clock values from the different satellites help obtain
the precise time, the spatial coordinates (latitude, longitude, and the elevation of the receiver) are
computed from the distances of the satellites estimated by the propagation delay of the signals. The
clocks on the satellites are physically moving at a fast pace, and as per the theory of relativity, this
causes the on-board clocks to run at a slightly slower rate than the corresponding clocks on the earth.
The cumulative delay per day is approximately 38 msec, which is compensated using additional
circuits. The atomic clocks that define GPS time record the number of seconds elapsed since January
6, 1980. Today (i.e., in 2006), GPS time is nearly 14 sec ahead of UTC, because it does not use
the leap second correction. Receivers thus apply a clock-correction offset (which is periodically
transmitted along with the other data) in order to display UTC correctly, and optionally adjust for a
local time zone.