CENTRAL LABORATORY FOR METROLOGY Laboratory TIME and

FIELD OF ACTIVITY
PORTUGUESE INSTITUTE FOR QUALITY
FREQUENCY

Cesium clocks Control unit

The Time and Frequency Laboratory realizes the atomic time scale by means of three cesium clocks
participating in the International Atomic Time (TAI) and realization of Universal Coordinate Time (UTC-
IPQ).
SI UNIT

International System Base Unit of Time:

second (s) defined as:

The duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the
two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom.

Derived unit of the International System (SI) of the quantity frequency (f ):

hertz (Hz) defined as:

The inverse of the second (s-1)

TRACEABILITY

The BIPM (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) maintains the time scales, considering the values
of the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS), base of a coordinated dissemination of the national
standards of time and frequency.

The BIPM generates two time scales:

TAI International Atomic Time
UTC - Coordinated Universal Time
The TAI scale is based on the data of the atomic clocks of the national laboratories that realize the
primary standard of time. The BIPM averages the data from more than 200 atomic time and frequency
standards of 50 laboratories. The results of these contributions are published periodically at the Circular
T.
The UTC scale is based on TAI with corrections inserted in order to bring it in line with the time scale
based on the rotation of the Earth, UT. This is achieved adding or subtracting leap seconds as
necessary. The UTC runs at the same frequency as the TAI. However, it differs from TAI by an integral
number of seconds.

 AVALABLE SERVICES
Calibration

EQUIPMENT RANGE UNCERTAINTY

Computer real time clock -
10 ms
synchronization
High performance clocks: ( f / f ) 2 10-14
cesium (Cs), rubidium (Rb) 24 hours

Note: f frequency in Hz
DEVELOPEMENTS

National time code by hertzian waves

GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) GPS / Glonass / Galileu time transfer
Participation at IGS (International GPS Service)
TWSTFT (Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Time Transfer)
Time server for the Internet
CONTACT

INSTITUTO PORTUGUS DA QUALIDADE (Portuguese Institute for Quality)

Rua Antnio Gio, 2 PT-2829-513 Caparica

LCM Time and Frequency Laboratory

Head: Dr. Ftima Marques
Tel +351 212 948 157 E-mail: fmarques@mail.ipq.pt

December 2006