The URSI General Assembly

Considering

• That in 1971, the ITU-R (International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunications, formerly the CCIR, the International Consultative Committee for Radiocommunications) proposed the present form of UTC, based upon the SI second but linked to the variable rotation of the Earth through the introduction of leap seconds in such a manner that UT1-UTC will always be less than 0.9 seconds,
• That while this system has worked well for most purposes, the future implementation of satellite and other systems may not easily incorporate the leap second system,
• That the ITU-R has formed a Special Rapporteur Group to study a possible change in the definition of UTC, and that this Special Rapporteur Group has asked URSI and other international bodies to advise it,
• That a committee formed by URSI Commission J has conducted a survey of the effects of a redefinition of UTC, and delivered that report to the Committee Chair, and
• That this report found no systems maintained by URSI members that would be adversely affected should UTC be redefined by fixing the number of leap seconds to its current value, or its value at any future date,
• That discussion of possible redefinition of UTC has important significance to URSI;
• That a large number of non-URSI members voiced strong objections to any change, citing the inconvenience to amateur astronomers along with possible legal or philosophical objections, and
• That all URSI members may not have had a chance to respond, or might respond differently if polled today;

Resolves

• That an URSI-wide working group be formed to inform and poll the URSI membership,
• That the chair of this working group act as URSI representative to the ITU/R Special Rapporteur Group, and
• That this working group be requested to prepare a resolution for the URSI General Assembly of 2005.