Time lords prepare to kick leap seconds into the next millennium
International timekeepers are considering a proposal to stop using leap seconds by 2027 to avoid potential technical failures in digital infrastructure. The move would allow Coordinated Universal Time to drift from Earth's rotation by up to an hour.
Why it matters
Addresses critical risks to global digital infrastructure, including telecommunications and power grids, posed by current timekeeping standards.
Risk of an unprecedented negative adjustment prompts plan to let UTC drift by as much as an hour
The prospect of a negative leap second – combined with decades of irritation over leap seconds generally – looks set to inspire a bit of global procrastination among international timekeepers.
Next month, the General Conference on Weights and Measures is set to vote on effectively calling time on leap seconds. A draft resolution [PDF] would make Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) continuous from May 20, 2027, and allow the difference between UTC and UT1, a measure of time based on Earth's rotation, to reach as much as one hour.
Leap seconds keep UTC, which is based on atomic clocks, within 0.9 seconds of time determined by the slightly wobbly rotation of our home planet. Since the system was introduced in 1972, 27 leap seconds have been added to UTC.
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