A leap second will be added to Co-ordinated Universal Time between 7:59.59am and 8:00.00am Hong Kong time on July 1.
Hong Kong standard time, exactly eight hours ahead of Co-ordinated Universal Time, will be delayed by one second.
Co-ordinated Universal Time is a stable and even time scale based on the frequency of atomic oscillations in atomic clocks.
The astronomical time scale based on the Earth's rotation is another common time scale. As a result of atmospheric circulation and other geophysical events on Earth, the rate of the Earth's rotation is uneven and slowing down.
Currently, one second based on the astronomical time scale is slightly longer than that based on the standard atomic time scale. It is therefore necessary to add a leap second from time to time to reconcile the two time scales.
Leap seconds have been added 26 times since the adoption of Co-ordinated Universal Time in 1972. The last adjustment was made on July 1, 2012.
Click here for more information.
