Time and frequency activities at the U.S. naval observatory

The U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) has provided timing for the navy and the Department of Defense since 1830 and, in cooperation with other institutions, has also provided timing for the United States and the international community. Its master clock (MC) is the source of UTC (USNO), the USNO's realization of coordinated universal time (UTC), which has stayed within 5 ns RMS of UTC since 1999. The data used to generate UTC (USNO) are based upon 73 cesium and 21 hydrogen maser frequency standards in three buildings at two sites. The USNO disseminates time via voice, telephone modem, LORAN, network time protocol (NTP), GPS, and two-way satellite time transfer (TWSTT). The USNO would not be able to meet all the requirements of its users had it kept to the same technology it had 10 years ago; this paper describes some of the changes being made to meet the future needs for precision, accuracy, and robustness. Further details and explanations of our services can be found on-line at http://tycho.usno.navy.mil, or by contacting the author directly