Horological Meandering

The international atomic time scale that serves as the basis for timekeeping for most of the world. UTC is a 24-hour timekeeping system. The hours, minutes, and seconds expressed by UTC represent the time-of-day at the Earth's prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) located near Greenwich, England.

UTC is calculated by the Bureau International des Poids et Measures (BIPM) in Sevres, France. The BIPM averages data collected from more than 200 atomic time and frequency standards located at about 50 laboratories, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As a result of this averaging, the BIPM generates two time scales, International Atomic Time (TAI), and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). These time scales realize the SI second as closely as possible.

UTC runs at the same frequency as TAI. However, it differs from TAI by an integral number of seconds. This difference increases when leap seconds occur. When necessary, leap seconds are added to UTC on either June 30 or December 31. The purpose of adding leap seconds is to keep atomic time (UTC) within +/-0.9 s of an older time scale called UT1, which is based on the rotational rate of the Earth. Leap seconds have been added to UTC at a rate averaging about 8 every 10 years, beginning in 1972.

Keep in mind that the BIPM maintains TAI and UTC as 'paper' time scales. The major metrology laboratories use the published data from the BIPM to steer their clocks and oscillators and generate real-time versions of UTC, such as UTC (NIST). You can think of UTC as the ultimate standard for time-of-day, time interval, and frequency. 

Clocks synchronized to UTC display the same hour, minute, and second all over the world (and remain within one second of UT1).  Oscillators syntonized to UTC generate signals that serve as reference standards for time interval and frequency.