Climate Change Is Affecting Earth’s Rotation, Challenging Global Timekeeping
Timekeeping might seem like a settled science, but recent findings suggest that climate change is causing shifts in Earth’s rotation, potentially disrupting how we measure time. Timekeepers around the world are grappling with this unexpected twist, which could delay the need for history’s first \”negative leap second\” by three years.
A New Challenge for Timekeepers
For most of human history, time was measured by the rotation of Earth. However, in 1967, the adoption of atomic clocks—which use the consistent frequency of atoms—ushered in a new era of precise timekeeping. Despite this advancement, a discrepancy arose because Earth does not rotate with perfect consistency. It often slows down, leading to a lag between atomic time and solar time.
To bridge this gap, timekeepers introduced the concept of the \”leap second\” in 1972. Whenever the difference between atomic time and Earth’s rotation approached 0.9 seconds, an extra second was added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Since then, 27 leap seconds have been added, the most recent in 2016.
Earth’s Rotation Speeds Up
However, a new challenge has emerged. Contrary to the long-term trend, Earth’s rotation has been speeding up in recent years, overtaking atomic time. This unprecedented acceleration could necessitate the first-ever negative leap second, where a second is removed from our clocks to realign the time measurements.
\”This has never happened before and poses a major challenge to ensuring that all parts of the global timing infrastructure show the same time,\” said Duncan Agnew, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego. \”Many computer programs for leap seconds assume they are all positive, so these would have to be rewritten.\”
Climate Change’s Role
In a study published in the journal Nature, Agnew analyzed Earth’s rotational speed using satellite data and examined the impact of its slowing core. He found that climate change is contributing to these rotational changes. Melting glaciers and the redistribution of mass around the planet are affecting Earth’s spin.
Interestingly, Agnew’s research suggests that climate change could delay the need for a negative leap second by three years. \”If not for climate change, a negative leap second might have needed to be added to UTC as soon as 2026,\” he said.
Implications for Technology
The prospect of a negative leap second raises concerns among experts. Introducing such a change could wreak havoc on computer systems worldwide, many of which are not designed to handle a minute with only 59 seconds. This could lead to synchronization issues and widespread technological disruptions.
As our planet continues to change in unexpected ways, timekeepers and technologists must prepare for new challenges in preserving the precision of global timekeeping. The intricate dance between Earth’s rotation and atomic time reminds us that even the most fundamental aspects of our world are interconnected and subject to change.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
