In message: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> John Cowan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: : Warner Losh scripsit: : : > There's no provision for emergency leapseconds. They just have to be : > at the end of the month, and annoucned 8 weeks in advance. IERS has : > actually exceeded this mandate by announcing them ~24 weeks in advance : > in recent history. : : So much the worse. That means that if the Earth hiccups on March 7, the : value of |DUT1| will not return to normal until May 31.
Yes. But it would take a change in angular momementum would likely mean that |DUT1| being a little too large would be the least of our worries. The earthquake that hit Indonesia last year changed the time of day by microseconds. What would cause a sudden jump of hundreds of milliseconds hurts my brain to contemplate. Warner