ET UTC

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Description

Find ET-UTC offset, given UTC Julian Date

Arguments and Return Values

Parameters: Numeric array specifying the UTC Julian Dates for which to find the ET-UTC offsets.

Return Value: Double-precision ET-UTC offsets, in seconds

Usage

Syntax: ET_UTC(JD)

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the basis for the time system used in everyday life. In order to keep UTC consistent with the Earth's slightly variable rate of rotation, leap seconds are occasionally inserted into UTC. Terrestrial Time (TT) runs at the same rate but has no leap seconds. Both are referenced to the rotating Earth.

Ephemeris Time (ET) is the number of seconds since noon (ET) on January 1, 2000. ET is referenced to the solar system's barycenter (center of mass). It runs at the same rate as Barycentric Time (TB, a.k.a. Barycentric Dynamical Time or TDB).

This function is accurate within about 0.000030 seconds after 1972, if the input is that accurate. Before 1972, the accuracy may be further limited by uncertainty in Delta-T. See the function DeltaT for details.

This function finds the difference between ET and UTC for the user-specified dates/times. Note that what it really returns is equivalent to the difference (ET-UTC, in seconds) between the input UTC Julian Date (converted from days to seconds) and the corresponding Ephemeris Time (in seconds): JD2ET(input JD) - 86400*((input JD) - JD(2000, 1, 1, 12, 0, 0, 0)). Since the JD and ET have different starting points, taking their difference without first subtracting the ET's starting point from the JD would be rather pointless (and susceptible to roundoff error).

For more information, see ftp://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/pds/data/ody-m-spice-6-v1.0/odsp_1000/data/lsk/naif0008.tls and http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/abc/time_tutorial.html.

When ET_UTC() is entered without any arguments, it prints its description, as shown below.

Examples

dv> ET_UTC()

Find ET-UTC offset, given UTC Julian Date
Works for array inputs
Returns double-precision ET-UTC offset, in seconds
Ephemeris Time (ET) is the number of seconds since noon (ET)
 on January 1, 2000. ET is referenced to the solar system's
 barycenter (center of mass). It runs at the same rate as
 Barycentric Time (TB, a.k.a. TDB).
This function finds the difference between ET and UTC for the
 user-specified dates/times. Note that what it really returns
 is equivalent to the difference (ET-UTC, in seconds) between
 the input UTC Julian Date (converted from days to seconds)
 and the corresponding Ephemeris Time (in seconds):
  JD2ET(input JD) - 86400*((input JD) - JD(2000,1,1,12,0,0,0))
 Since the JD and ET have different starting points, taking
  their difference without first subtracting the ET's starting
  point from the JD would be rather pointless (and susceptible
  to roundoff error).
Accurate within about 0.000030 seconds after 1972 (if the input
 is that accurate). Before 1972, the accuracy may be further
 limited by uncertainty in Delta-T. See the function DeltaT for
 details.
See ftp://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/pds/data/ody-m-spice-6-v1.0/
 odsp_1000/data/lsk/naif0008.tls, the function DeltaT, and
 http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xte/abc/time_tutorial.html
S.Marshall 01-23-2010

0
dv> a = JD(2010, 1, 1, 12, 0, 0)
2455198.00000000
dv> ET_UTC(a)
66.1839389709322
dv> DeltaT(a) + TB_TT(JD2TT(a))
66.1839390618977
dv> # So ET-UTC as found in those two ways is equal within stated level of accuracy

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Created On: 11-18-2009
Modified On: 05-07-2010

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