Development of automatic intercomparison system for generation of time scale ensembling several atomic clocks

Abstract

National physical laboratory India (NPLI) has five commercial cesium atomic clocks. Till recently one of these clocks had been used to maintain coordinated universal time (UTC) of NPLI. To utilize all these clocks in an ensemble manner to generate a smoother time scale, it has been essential to inter-compare them very precisely. This has been achieved with an automatic measurement system with well-conceived software. Though few laboratories have developed such automatic measurement system by themselves based on the respective requirements; but they are not reported. So keeping in mind of the specific requirement of the time scale generation, a new system has been developed by NPLI. The design has taken into account of the associated infrastructure that exists and would be used. The performance of the new system has also been studied. It has been found to be quite satisfactory to serve the purpose. The system is being utilized for the generation of time scale of NPLI.