Dynamical Time

In time standards, dynamical time is the time-like argument of a dynamical theory; and a dynamical time scale in this sense is the realization of a time-like argument based on a dynamical theory: that is, the time and time scale are defined implicitly, inferred from the observed position of an astronomical object via a theory of its motion. A first application of this concept of dynamical time was the definition of the ephemeris time scale (ET).

In the late 19th century it was suspected, and in the early 20th century it was established, that the rotation of the Earth (i.e. the length of the day) was both irregular on short time scales, and was slowing down on longer time scales. The suggestion was made, that observation of the position of the Moon, Sun and planets and comparison of the observations with their gravitational ephemerides would be a better way to determine a uniform time scale. A detailed proposal of this kind was published in 1948 and adopted by the IAU in 1952 (see Ephemeris time - history).

Using data from Newcomb's Tables of the Sun (based on the theory of the apparent motion of the Sun by Simon Newcomb, 1895, as retrospectively used in the definition of ephemeris time), the SI second was defined in 1960 as:

Caesium atomic clocks became operational in 1955, and their use provided further confirmation that the rotation of the earth fluctuated randomly. This confirmed the unsuitability of the mean solar second of Universal Time as a precision measure of time interval. After three years of comparisons with lunar observations it was determined that the ephemeris second corresponded to 9,192,631,770 +/- 20 cycles of the caesium resonance. In 1967/8 the length of the SI second was redefined to be 9,192,631,770 cycles of the caesium resonance, equal to the previous measurement result for the ephemeris second (see Ephemeris time - redefinition of the second).

In 1976, however, the IAU resolved that the theoretical basis for ephemeris time was wholly non-relativistic, and therefore, beginning in 1984 ephemeris time would be replaced by two further time scales with allowance for relativistic corrections. Their names, assigned in 1979, emphasized their dynamical nature or origin, Barycentric Dynamical Time (TDB) and Terrestrial Dynamical Time (TDT). Both were defined for continuity with ET and were based on what had become the standard SI second, which in turn had been derived from the measured second of ET.

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