Goodbye leap seconds, hello leap hour: Timekeepers make historic decision
What's the story
The world's official timekeepers have decided to replace the leap second with a new concept, the leap hour. The decision was made at a conference in France by delegates from 69 countries. The change is aimed at minimizing potential disruptions in computer systems and other technical infrastructure that could be caused by irregularities in time measurement.
Technical transition
What is a leap hour?
Dr. Setnam Shemar, a principal scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL), explained that the leap hour is a solution to the risks posed by leap seconds.
He said it will protect systems and national infrastructure reliant on precise timekeeping while maintaining our global time system's connection with Earth's rotation.
The decision allows Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to drift up to an hour from astronomical time before needing a leap hour, which is unlikely for thousands of years.
Technological challenges
How leap seconds have previously caused disruptions
Leap seconds, introduced in 1972 to keep UTC aligned with astronomical time, have caused problems for high-accuracy timing systems used in telecommunications, electricity grids, and navigation systems.
Software updates can apply leap seconds at the wrong time, knocking networks out of sync.
In 2012, some computer systems couldn't cope with 61 seconds in a minute due to a leap second application.
This caused several websites including Reddit and LinkedIn to crash while Qantas flights were delayed.
Future implications
Concerns over potential software issues influenced decision
The leap hour is a long-term solution to the problem of leap seconds, which could have caused the first negative leap second in the next decade.
The decision to adopt the leap hour was influenced by concerns over potential software issues that haven't been tested on negative leap seconds before.
Historically, countries like the UK and Russia have opposed scrapping leap seconds due to their association with Greenwich Mean Time and potential impacts on satellite navigation systems, respectively.