Glossary of Abbreviations

Timekeeping has spawned its own lexicon of abbreviations and

acronyms. The following are the most common examples used in
this book.
BIH

Bureau International de lHeure, the organisation

formerly responsible for coodinating world time
scales, now superseded by BIPM and IERS.

BIPM

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, the organisation responsible for international standards of
measurement. The Time Section disseminates TAI
and UTC.

CGPM

Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures, the

intergovernmental body that oversees the work of
CIPM and BIPM.

CIPM

Comite International des Poids et Mesures, the committee of experts that supervises BIPM.

DCF77

A standard time and frequency service broadcast

from Germany.

EAL

Echelle Atomique Libre (Free Atomic Time), a freerunning time scale formed by averaging the readings
of numerous atomic clocks worldwide.

ET

Ephemeris Time, a time scale based on the movements of bodies in the Solar System.

GLONASS

Global Navigation Satellite System, a Russian network of navigational satellites.

GMAT

Greenwich Mean Astronomical Time, a former time

scale based on GMT with the date changing at noon
rather than midnight.
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GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS

GMT

Greenwich Mean Time, a former time scale for civil

timekeeping based on mean solar time at Greenwich,
now superseded by UTC.

GPS

Global Positioning System, a US network of navigational satellites.

IAU

International Astronomical Union, the organisation

formerly responsible for world timekeeping through
BIH.

IERS

International Earth Rotation Service, the organisation that monitors the Earths rotation and decides
when leap seconds are required.

ITU

International Telecommunication Union, the organisation responsible for the agreements that define
UTC in terms of TAI.

LPTF

Laboratoire Primaire du Temps et des Frequences,

the French time standards laboratory.

MSF

A standard time and frequency service broadcast

from the UK.

NBS

National Bureau of Standards (US), now renamed as

NIST.

NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology, the

US standards laboratory.

NPL

National Physical Laboratory, the UK standards

laboratory.

OP

Observatoire de Paris, the national observatory of

France and the home of LPTF and IERS.

PTB

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the German

standards laboratory.

PZT

Photographic Zenith Tube, a specialised telescope

for timing star transits.

RGO

Royal Greenwich Observatory, the former national

observatory of England.

GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS

191

SI

Syst`eme International des Unites, the international

system of units.

TAI

Temps Atomique International (International

Atomic Time), a time scale formed by calibrating
EAL against a small number of primary caesium
standards that generate SI seconds.

USNO

United States Naval Observatory, the US national

observatory.

UT

Universal Time, originally the scientific name for

Greenwich Mean Time but now redefined as UT0,
UT1, UT2 and UTC.

UT0

UT determined by astronomical observations at a

given observatory.

UT1

UT0 corrected for polar motion.

UT2

UT1 corrected for seasonal variations.

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time, a time scale formed

from TAI but kept close to UT1 by the inclusion of
leap seconds. The basis of all civil timekeeping.

VLBI

Very Long Baseline Interferometry, a method for

determining UT1 and also used for research in radio
astronomy.

WWV, WWVB,

Standard time and frequency services broadcast

WWVH

from the US.