Weather bureau gets 3 atomic clocks

The weather bureau now has three Caesium atomic clocks to help in providing more accurate time-keeping data.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said the three atomic clocks, worth more than P50 million, are now installed at its planetarium at the Science Garden.

“These cost more than P50 million and came from Boulder, Colorado. It has been installed at the planetarium,” said Mario Raymundo, chief of the Astronomical Observation and Time Service Unit.

Last year, the Department of Science and Technology approved the purchase of the three state-of-the-art Caesium 5071A clocks, which are the most accurate time and frequency standards known.

Raymundo said the clocks were procured for the country to have its own universal coordinated time, which will be used for disseminating the Philippine Standard Time via a network time protocol server system.

Republic Act 10535 or the Philippine Standard Time of 2013 aims to change “Filipino time” from being constantly late to being habitually punctual.

The atomic clocks have a maximum life span of 15 years and can maintain time consistently to within one second over 30 million years. TVJ