Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
Coordinated Universal Time is the world's civil time scale. It follows International Atomic Time but is offset by whole leap seconds so that it stays close to Earth's rotation. Proposals for lunar time all require traceability to UTC.
Related terms
- Derived from
- International Atomic TimeTAI
- Sibling of
- International Atomic TimeTAI
- Sibling of
- Coordinated Lunar TimeLTC
Other terms worth reading next.
All thirty entries are in the glossary of lunar timekeeping.
Where it appears
Primary documents that use the term.
- OSTP Celestial Time Standardization memo (2024) [1]Official
- IAU 2024 Resolution III: a coordinated lunar time [2]Official
- CGPM 2026 Draft Resolution D on lunar time [3]Official
Articles on this site that use the term.
- Every leap second since 1972, with dates and offsets
- How long is a day on the Moon?
- How UTC is calculated, and what a lunar scale would copy
- Lunar time for developers: how to timestamp lunar data
- Lunar time and the lunar calendar are not the same
- The family tree of time scales: TT, TCG, TCB and TCL
- What is a leap second, and who decides to insert one
- When is the next leap second, and what happens next
- Will the Moon have time zones?
Sources
Last verified