An atomic clock is a type of clock that uses a normal atomic resonance frequency to power its counter. Something that does not happen with the one measured by atomic clocks. The rotational movement of the Earth, although stable, is not constant, it slows down, which causes a delay in the measurement of the passage of time. With the development of atomic clocks, the standards of time measurements ceased to be celestial to be atomic. There were two reasons that caused this change from GMT to UTC. For example, using GTM it is correct to state that in Colombia it is 5pm, while taking into account the UTC system, it must be stated that in Colombia it is 5pm. With this method, the terms before noon (am) and after noon (pm) are no longer used. In order to perform the calculations using the UTC method, it is necessary to take into account the zero hour (which happens at exactly midnight), this differentiates it from the GTM (which takes 12 o’clock as the zero hour, since the UTC is established as a 24-hour system, where each hour has its own acronym that is not repeated throughout the day.
The circulation of leap seconds is determined by the International Earth Rotation Service, based on their measurements of the earth’s rotation. UTC is synchronized with the day and night of UT1, with leap seconds added or subtracted in both late June and December, when necessary. Because the earth’s rotation slows down, it lags behind atomic time. Unlike GMT, UTC is not defined by the Sun or the stars, but is instead measured by atomic clocks. UTC usually varies a tenth of a second in times of deep winter like July or December where the jump is voluntary and necessary to recalculate and adjust the UT data, since the UT1 data never varies.
These clocks cannot present hourly variations greater or less than 0.9 seconds. However, atomic clocks are so accurate that only the most precise time computers need to use these corrections and most time service users use atomic clocks that have been previously referenced to UTC, to estimate UTC time. True high-precision UTC times can only be determined after knowing the fact that atomic time is established by reconciling the observed differences between a set of atomic clocks maintained by a number of national time offices. It can be considered as a compromise between the English abbreviation “CUT” (coordinated universal time) and the French “TUC” (temps universel coordonné). CharacteristicĪccording to abbreviationfinder, “UTC” isn’t really an abbreviation is a variant of universal time (universal time, abbreviated UT) and its modifier C (for “coordinated”), added to express that it is one more variant of UT. The new name was coined to eliminate the inclusion of a specific location in an international standard, as well as to base the measurement of time on atomic standards, rather than celestial ones. It is the successor of GMT ( Greenwich mean time: Greenwich mean time), and is still colloquially called that. Coordinated universal time ―known by its acronym in English UTC ( universal time coordinated) ― or civil time and civil time is the reference time zone with respect to which all other zones of the world are calculated.