Recent Calibrations of UTC(NIST) and UTC(USNO)

Published

November 26, 2012

Author(s)

Victor S. Zhang, Thomas E. Parker, Russell Bumgarner, Jonathan Hirschauer, Angela Mckinley, Stephen Mitchell, Ed Powers, Jim Skinner, Demetrios Matsakis

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) use GPS common-view, carrier-phase time transfer and Two Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT, also known as TWSTT) techniques in our time and frequency transfer applications and to compare our timescales. We have made five time transfer calibration measurements via TWSTFT since August 2010. In addition, one "hybrid" calibration was made via cesium clock trip and TWSTFT, and another was made with a travelling GPS receiver. The TWSTFT calibrations agree with the TWSTFT differences within 1.0 ns after the USNO TWSTFT station was rebuilt at the end of 2010. With the traveling GPS receiver, we used the carrier-phase Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique to obtain the calibration result. If one TWSTFT calibration is used to calibrate the operational PPP data, then the remaining TWSTFT calibrations are consistent with operational PPP to within 1.0 ns peak to peak. The calibration via PPP differs by 7 ns from that of the TWSTFT. The difference is most likely from the error in delay calibration of the PPP link. The hybrid calibration is consistent with the others, if its larger estimated uncertainties are taken into account. The possibility of lowering the uncertainties assigned by the BIPM is discussed.

Proceedings Title

Proceetings of the 2012 Precist Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting

Conference Dates

November 27-29, 2012

Conference Location

Reston, VA

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

GPS time and frequency transfer, common-view (CV), carrier-phase (CP), TAIPPP, Two way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT), UTC

Citation

Zhang, V. , Parker, T. , Bumgarner, R. , Hirschauer, J. , Mckinley, A. , Mitchell, S. , Powers, E. , Skinner, J. and Matsakis, D. (2012), Recent Calibrations of UTC(NIST) and UTC(USNO), Proceetings of the 2012 Precist Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting, Reston, VA (Accessed October 31, 2024)