ANALYSIS OF THE SEASONAL EFFECTS ON CESIUM CLOCKS TO IMPROVE THE LONG-TERM STABILITY OF A TIME SCALE

E. Bava, F. Cordara, V. Pettiti, P. Tavella

Abstract: The Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale time scale UTC(IEN) is generated by a commercial cesium clock selected among the five presently at disposal and is maintained in agreement within 5 microseconds with UTC by means of a phase microstepper. The problem of the influence of the environmental parameters on atomic clocks has been investigated and recent improvements in the international synchronization systems have shown more clearly the presence of seasonal effects on clocks. On the IEN cesium clock ensemble, long term frequency instabilities and seasonal variations have been detected and a relationship between humidity and frequency variations has been analyzed. This investigation has been also extended to the cesium clocks kept in the (ISPT) Laboratory in Roma. An evaluation of the annual repetition of these effects has been performed by means of statistical processes to settle a better use of microstepper corrections and optimize the long term stability of UTC(IEN) time scale.
Published in: Proceedings of the 19th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting
December 1 - 3, 1989
Sheraton Hotel
Redondo Beach, California
Pages: 185 - 202
Cite this article: Bava, E., Cordara, F., Pettiti, V., Tavella, P., "ANALYSIS OF THE SEASONAL EFFECTS ON CESIUM CLOCKS TO IMPROVE THE LONG-TERM STABILITY OF A TIME SCALE," Proceedings of the 19th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Redondo Beach, California, December 1987, pp. 185-202.
Full Paper: ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit
Sign In