NAME

Time::TT::Agencies - list of Terran horological agencies

DESCRIPTION

Precision timekeeping on Terra is a complex task undertaken by a group of arount seventy agencies around the planet, mostly national metrological laboratories. The time scales that they produce are conventionally labelled using short abbreviations, mostly of two to four letters, identifying the agency concerned. This document lists the abbreviations and their meanings.

The BIPM maintains a similar list at ftp://ftp2.bipm.fr/pub/tai/publication/acronyms.txt, but that only includes current laboratory abbreviations, and does not include special cases such as GPS. The list below is more complete.

AGENCIES

AMC

Alternate Master Clock station of USNO, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States of America

AOS

Astrogeodynamical Observatory, Space Research Centre P.A.S., Borowiec, Poland

APL

Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, United States of America

ASMW

[no information available]

AUS

consortium of laboratories in Australia

BEV

Bundesamt fur Eich- und Vermessungswesen (Federal Office for Calibration and Surveying), Vienna, Austria

BIPM

Bureau international des poids et mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), Sevres, France

BIRM

Beijing Institute of Radio Metrology and Measurement, Beijing, People's Republic of China

CAO

Stazione Astronomica di Cagliari (Cagliari Astronomical Observatory), Cagliari, Italy

CH

Metrology and Accreditation (METAS), Switzerland

CNM

Centro Nacional de Metrologia (CENAM) (National Centre of Metrology), Queretaro, Mexico

CNMP

Centro Nacional de Metrologia de Panama (National Centre of Metrology of Panama), Panama

CRL

Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan (renamed to NICT in 2004-04)

CSAO

[name missing], Lintong, People's Republic of China (renamed to NTSC in 2002-01)

CSIR

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa

DLR

Deutsche Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Centre), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

DPT

[name and location missing] (renamed to CSIR in 1993)

DTAG

Deutsche Telekom AG, Darmstadt, Germany

F

Commission Nationale de l'Heure (National Time Commission), Paris, France

FTZ

Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum (Research and Technology Centre), Darmstadt, Germany (renamed to DTAG in 1996-05)

GLO

Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)

GPS

Global Positioning System

GUM

Glowny Urzad Miar (Central Office of Measures), Warsaw, Poland (succeeded by PL in 2001-07)

HKO

Hong Kong Observatory, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

IEN

Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris (Galileo Ferraris National Electrical Engineering Institute), Turin, Italy (renamed to IT in 2006-02)

IFAG

Bundesamt fur Kartographie und Geodasie (Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy), Fundamental station, Wettzell, Kotzting, Germany

IGMA

Instituto Geografico Militar (Military Geographic Institute), Buenos Aires, Argentina

INPL

National Physical Laboratory, Jerusalem, Israel

IPQ

Institute Portugues da Qualidade (Portuguese Institute of Quality), Monte de Caparica, Portugal

IT

Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (National Institute of Metrological Research), Turin, Italy

JATC

Joint Atomic Time Commission, Lintong, People's Republic of China

JV

Justervesenet, Norwegian Metrology and Accreditation Service, Kjeller, Norway

KRIS

Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

KSRI

Korea Standards Research Institute, Daejeon, Republic of Korea (renamed to KRIS in 1991-10)

LDS

University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

LT

Lithuanian National Metrology Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania

MIKE

Centre for Metrology and Accreditation, Espoo, Finland

MSL

Measurement Standards Laboratory, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

NAO

National Astronomical Observatory, Misuzawa, Japan

NAOM

National Astronomical Observatory, Misuzawa, Japan (renamed to NAO in 1997-01)

NAOT

National Astronomical Observatory, Tokyo, Japan

NICT

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo, Japan

NIM

National Institute of Metrology, Beijing, People's Republic of China

NIMB

National Institute of Metrology, Bucharest, Romania

NIMT

National Institute of Metrology, Bangkok, Thailand

NIS

National Institute for Standards, Cairo, Egypt

NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America

NMC

National Centre of Metrology, Sofia, Bulgaria

NMIJ

National Metrology Institute of Japan, Tsukuba, Japan

NML

National Measurement Laboratory, Sydney, Australia

NMLS

National Metrology Laboratory of SIRIM Berhad, Sepang, Malaysia

NPL

National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, United Kingdom

NPLI

National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, India

NRC

National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

NRLM

National Research Laboratory of Metrology, Tsukuba, Japan (renamed to NMIJ in 2001-12)

NTSC

National Time Service Centre of China, Lintong, People's Republic of China

OMH

Orszagos Meresugyi Hivatal (National Office of Measures), Budapest, Hungary

ONBA

Observatorio Naval (Naval Observatory), Buenos Aires, Argentina

ONRJ

Observatorio Nacional (National Observatory), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

OP

Observatoire de Paris (Paris Observatory), Paris, France

ORB

Observatoire Royal de Belgique (Royal Observatory of Belgium), Brussels, Belgium

PEL

Physics and Engineering Laboratory, Lower Hutt, New Zealand (renamed to MSL in 1992)

PKNM

Polski Komitet Normalizacji (Polish Committee for Standardization), Warsaw, Poland (renamed to GUM in 1994)

PL

consortium of laboratories in Poland

PSB

National Measurement Centre, Singapore Productivity and Standards Board, Singapore (renamed to SG in 2002-03)

PTB

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Federal Standards Laboratory), Braunschweig, Germany

RC

[no information available]

ROA

Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (Royal Spanish Naval Observatory), San Fernando, Spain

SCL

Standards and Calibration Laboratory, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

SG

Standards Productivity and Innovation Board, Singapore

SMU

Slovensky metrologicky Ustav (Slovak Institute of Metrology), Bratislava, Slovakia

SNT

[name and location uncertain, probably Sistema Nazionale di Taratura, Italy]

SO

[name missing], Shanghai, People's Republic of China

SP

Sveriges Provnings- och Forskningsinstitut (Swedish National Testing and Research Institute), Boras, Sweden

STA

[name and location missing] ([possibly renamed to SNT in 1991])

SU

Institute of Metrology for Time and Space (IMVP), NPO "VNIIFTRI" Mendeleevo, Moscow Region, Russia

TAO

[name and location uncertain, probably Telecommunications Advancement Organization of Japan] ([possibly succeeded by NAOT in 1992])

TCC

Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory (TIGO), Concepcion, Chile

TL

Telecommunication Laboratories, Chung-Li, Taiwan

TP

Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic

TUG

Technischen Universitat Graz (Technical University of Graz), Graz, Austria

UME

Ulusai Metroloji Enstitusu (National Metrology Institute), Marmara Research Centre, Gebze Kocaeli, Turkey

USNO

United States Naval Observatory, Washington D.C., United States of America

VSL

Nederlands Meetinstituut Van Swinden Laboratorium, Delft, Netherlands

YUZM

[no information available]

ZIPE

[no information available]

ZMDM

Zavod za mere i dragocene metale (Bureau of Measures and Precious Metals), Belgrade, Serbia

BUGS

Some information is missing from the above list. If you can fill in any of the blanks, please mail <zefram@fysh.org>.

SEE ALSO

Time::TAI, Time::TT

AUTHOR

This document is derived from the BIPM-maintained abbreviation list at ftp://ftp2.bipm.fr/pub/tai/publication/acronyms.txt. Andrew Main (Zefram) <zefram@fysh.org> added information on historical abbreviations, and made the presentation more consistent.

COPYRIGHT

It is questionable whether this document is copyrightable, due to its essentially functional nature as a collection of raw data. To the extent that the BIPM holds copyright on the file that this is based on, reproducing certain aspects of it here is probably fair use. Andrew Main does not claim copyright on any part of this document, and hereby places into the public domain any copyrightable aspect of it over which he would otherwise hold the copyright.