In modern usage, civil time refers to statutory time as designated by civilian authorities. Modern civil time is generally national

standard time Standard time is the synchronisation of clocks within a geographical region to a single time standard, rather than a local mean time standard. Generally, standard time agrees with the local mean time at some meridian that passes through the ...

in a

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...

at a fixed offset from

Coordinated Universal Time Coordinated Universal Time or UTC is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about one second of Solar time#Mean solar time, mean solar time (such as Universal Time, UT1) at 0° longitude (at the I ...

(UTC), possibly adjusted by

daylight saving time Daylight saving time (DST), also referred to as daylight savings time or simply daylight time (United States, Canada, and Australia), and summer time (United Kingdom, European Union, and others), is the practice of advancing clocks (typicall ...

during part of the year. UTC is calculated by reference to atomic clocks and was adopted in 1972. Older systems use

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...

observations. In traditional astronomical usage, civil time was

mean solar time Solar time is a calculation of the passage of time based on the position of the Sun in the sky. The fundamental unit of solar time is the day, based on the synodic rotation period. Two types of solar time are apparent solar time ( sundia ...

reckoned from

midnight Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours ...

. Before 1925, the astronomical time 00:00:00 meant noon, twelve hours after the civil time 00:00:00 which meant midnight. HM Nautical Almanac Office in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

used

Greenwich Mean Time Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a c ...

(GMT) for both conventions, leading to ambiguity, whereas the Nautical Almanac Office at the

United States Naval Observatory United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...

used GMT for the pre-1925 convention and Greenwich Civil Time (GCT) for the post-1924 convention until 1952. In 1928, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

introduced the term

Universal Time Universal Time (UT or UT1) is a time standard based on Earth's rotation. While originally it was mean solar time at 0° longitude, precise measurements of the Sun are difficult. Therefore, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth's angle wit ...

for GMT beginning at midnight. In modern usage, GMT is no longer a formal standard reference time: it is now a name for the

UTC+00:00. Universal Time is now determined by reference to distant celestial objects: UTC is derived from

International Atomic Time International Atomic Time (abbreviated TAI, from its French name ) is a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard based on the notional passage of proper time on Earth's geoid. TAI is a weighted average of the time kept by over 450 ato ...

(TAI), and is adjusted by

leap second A leap second is a one- second adjustment that is occasionally applied to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), to accommodate the difference between precise time ( International Atomic Time (TAI), as measured by atomic clocks) and imprecise obser ...

s to compensate for variations in the rotational velocity of the Earth. Civil Times around the world are all defined by reference to UTC. n many jurisdictions, legislation has not been updated and still refers to GMT: this is taken to mean UTC+0.

References

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Time Scales
Time scales {{time-stub

See also

References

External links