- China’s strontium optical clock now participates directly in international atomic time calculation
- Optical clocks operate at higher frequencies than caesium, allowing finer measurement resolution
- Accuracy claims reach one second over billions or tens of billions of years
China has received formal international recognition for an ultra precise optical lattice clock after its calibration data was accepted into the global timekeeping system.
The approval allows the country’s NIM-Sr1 strontium atomic optical lattice clock to participate directly in the calculation of International Atomic Time, a role previously dominated by a few nations using caesium based standards.
This development shifts China from contributing data indirectly to becoming part of the core mechanism that defines global time.
Entry into international time calibration
The clock, developed by the National Institute of Metrology, passed review by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, which oversees the global time standard.
Its data has now been incorporated into the system used to calculate international standard time, meaning the clock’s measurements are no longer experimental references but are actively used alongside other leading atomic clocks worldwide.
Such participation reflects a level of stability and repeatability which must be demonstrated consistently over extended periods.
Traditional caesium atomic clocks define the current international second and can remain accurate to within one second over hundreds of millions of years.
Optical clocks are important because they operate at much higher frequencies, enabling far greater measurement precision than caesium clocks, which in practical terms, this enables accuracy on the scale of one second over billions or even tens of billions of years, at least under controlled conditions.
Such precision exceeds what is required for everyday timekeeping, yet it becomes critical for advanced scientific and technical systems.
For instance, ultra-precise clocks are a backbone of satellite navigation, telecommunications synchronization, high frequency trading systems, and deep space exploration.
Small timing errors can accumulate into large positional or coordination errors across global networks, and as systems become more interconnected and faster, the tolerance for timing drift continues to shrink.
Optical clocks are widely expected to replace caesium clocks as the basis for redefining the second in the future.
Participation in international calibration allows a country to influence how that transition unfolds, rather than adapt to standards set elsewhere.
It also provides redundancy in the global system, which relies on contributions from multiple independent laboratories to maintain stability.
Beyond civil applications, precise national timekeeping supports secure communications and independent operation during periods when international coordination may be disrupted.
In addition, this clock reduces dependence on any single clock and improves resilience in time measurement operations.
Via ITHome (originally in Chinese)
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