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2aa62f2b 1# $NetBSD: Theory,v 1.8 2004/05/27 20:39:49 kleink Exp $\r
2@(#)Theory 7.15\r
3\r
4\r
5----- Outline -----\r
6\r
7 Time and date functions\r
8 Names of time zone regions\r
9 Time zone abbreviations\r
10 Calendrical issues\r
11 Time and time zones on Mars\r
12\r
13\r
14----- Time and date functions -----\r
15\r
16These time and date functions are upwards compatible with POSIX.1,\r
17an international standard for UNIX-like systems.\r
18As of this writing, the current edition of POSIX.1 is:\r
19\r
20 Information technology --Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX (R))\r
21 -- Part 1: System Application Program Interface (API) [C Language]\r
22 ISO/IEC 9945-1:1996\r
23 ANSI/IEEE Std 1003.1, 1996 Edition\r
24 1996-07-12\r
25\r
26POSIX.1 has the following properties and limitations.\r
27\r
28* In POSIX.1, time display in a process is controlled by the\r
29 environment variable TZ. Unfortunately, the POSIX.1 TZ string takes\r
30 a form that is hard to describe and is error-prone in practice.\r
31 Also, POSIX.1 TZ strings can't deal with other (for example, Israeli)\r
32 daylight saving time rules, or situations where more than two\r
33 time zone abbreviations are used in an area.\r
34\r
35 The POSIX.1 TZ string takes the following form:\r
36\r
37 stdoffset[dst[offset],date[/time],date[/time]]\r
38\r
39 where:\r
40\r
41 std and dst\r
42 are 3 or more characters specifying the standard\r
43 and daylight saving time (DST) zone names.\r
44 offset\r
45 is of the form `[-]hh:[mm[:ss]]' and specifies the\r
46 offset west of UTC. The default DST offset is one hour\r
47 ahead of standard time.\r
48 date[/time],date[/time]\r
49 specifies the beginning and end of DST. If this is absent,\r
50 the system supplies its own rules for DST, and these can\r
51 differ from year to year; typically US DST rules are used.\r
52 time\r
53 takes the form `hh:[mm[:ss]]' and defaults to 02:00.\r
54 date\r
55 takes one of the following forms:\r
56 Jn (1<=n<=365)\r
57 origin-1 day number not counting February 29\r
58 n (0<=n<=365)\r
59 origin-0 day number counting February 29 if present\r
60 Mm.n.d (0[Sunday]<=d<=6[Saturday], 1<=n<=5, 1<=m<=12)\r
61 for the dth day of week n of month m of the year,\r
62 where week 1 is the first week in which day d appears,\r
63 and `5' stands for the last week in which day d appears\r
64 (which may be either the 4th or 5th week).\r
65\r
66* In POSIX.1, when a TZ value like "EST5EDT" is parsed,\r
67 typically the current US DST rules are used,\r
68 but this means that the US DST rules are compiled into each program\r
69 that does time conversion. This means that when US time conversion\r
70 rules change (as in the United States in 1987), all programs that\r
71 do time conversion must be recompiled to ensure proper results.\r
72\r
73* In POSIX.1, there's no tamper-proof way for a process to learn the\r
74 system's best idea of local wall clock. (This is important for\r
75 applications that an administrator wants used only at certain times--\r
76 without regard to whether the user has fiddled the "TZ" environment\r
77 variable. While an administrator can "do everything in UTC" to get\r
78 around the problem, doing so is inconvenient and precludes handling\r
79 daylight saving time shifts--as might be required to limit phone\r
80 calls to off-peak hours.)\r
81\r
82* POSIX.1 requires that systems ignore leap seconds.\r
83\r
84These are the extensions that have been made to the POSIX.1 functions:\r
85\r
86* The "TZ" environment variable is used in generating the name of a file\r
87 from which time zone information is read (or is interpreted a la\r
88 POSIX); "TZ" is no longer constrained to be a three-letter time zone\r
89 name followed by a number of hours and an optional three-letter\r
90 daylight time zone name. The daylight saving time rules to be used\r
91 for a particular time zone are encoded in the time zone file;\r
92 the format of the file allows U.S., Australian, and other rules to be\r
93 encoded, and allows for situations where more than two time zone\r
94 abbreviations are used.\r
95\r
96 It was recognized that allowing the "TZ" environment variable to\r
97 take on values such as "America/New_York" might cause "old" programs\r
98 (that expect "TZ" to have a certain form) to operate incorrectly;\r
99 consideration was given to using some other environment variable\r
100 (for example, "TIMEZONE") to hold the string used to generate the\r
101 time zone information file name. In the end, however, it was decided\r
102 to continue using "TZ": it is widely used for time zone purposes;\r
103 separately maintaining both "TZ" and "TIMEZONE" seemed a nuisance;\r
104 and systems where "new" forms of "TZ" might cause problems can simply\r
105 use TZ values such as "EST5EDT" which can be used both by\r
106 "new" programs (a la POSIX) and "old" programs (as zone names and\r
107 offsets).\r
108\r
109* To handle places where more than two time zone abbreviations are used,\r
110 the functions "localtime" and "gmtime" set tzname[tmp->tm_isdst]\r
111 (where "tmp" is the value the function returns) to the time zone\r
112 abbreviation to be used. This differs from POSIX.1, where the elements\r
113 of tzname are only changed as a result of calls to tzset.\r
114\r
115* Since the "TZ" environment variable can now be used to control time\r
116 conversion, the "daylight" and "timezone" variables are no longer\r
117 needed. (These variables are defined and set by "tzset"; however, their\r
118 values will not be used by "localtime.")\r
119\r
120* The "localtime" function has been set up to deliver correct results\r
121 for near-minimum or near-maximum time_t values. (A comment in the\r
122 source code tells how to get compatibly wrong results).\r
123\r
124* A function "tzsetwall" has been added to arrange for the system's\r
125 best approximation to local wall clock time to be delivered by\r
126 subsequent calls to "localtime." Source code for portable\r
127 applications that "must" run on local wall clock time should call\r
128 "tzsetwall();" if such code is moved to "old" systems that don't\r
129 provide tzsetwall, you won't be able to generate an executable program.\r
130 (These time zone functions also arrange for local wall clock time to be\r
131 used if tzset is called--directly or indirectly--and there's no "TZ"\r
132 environment variable; portable applications should not, however, rely\r
133 on this behavior since it's not the way SVR2 systems behave.)\r
134\r
135* These functions can account for leap seconds, thanks to Bradley White\r
136 (bww@k.cs.cmu.edu).\r
137\r
138Points of interest to folks with other systems:\r
139\r
140* This package is already part of many POSIX-compliant hosts,\r
141 including BSD, HP, Linux, Network Appliance, SCO, SGI, and Sun.\r
142 On such hosts, the primary use of this package\r
143 is to update obsolete time zone rule tables.\r
144 To do this, you may need to compile the time zone compiler\r
145 `zic' supplied with this package instead of using the system `zic',\r
146 since the format of zic's input changed slightly in late 1994,\r
147 and many vendors still do not support the new input format.\r
148\r
149* The UNIX Version 7 "timezone" function is not present in this package;\r
150 it's impossible to reliably map timezone's arguments (a "minutes west\r
151 of GMT" value and a "daylight saving time in effect" flag) to a\r
152 time zone abbreviation, and we refuse to guess.\r
153 Programs that in the past used the timezone function may now examine\r
154 tzname[localtime(&clock)->tm_isdst] to learn the correct time\r
155 zone abbreviation to use. Alternatively, use\r
156 localtime(&clock)->tm_zone if this has been enabled.\r
157\r
158* The 4.2BSD gettimeofday function is not used in this package.\r
159 This formerly let users obtain the current UTC offset and DST flag,\r
160 but this functionality was removed in later versions of BSD.\r
161\r
162* In SVR2, time conversion fails for near-minimum or near-maximum\r
163 time_t values when doing conversions for places that don't use UTC.\r
164 This package takes care to do these conversions correctly.\r
165\r
166The functions that are conditionally compiled if STD_INSPIRED is defined\r
167should, at this point, be looked on primarily as food for thought. They are\r
168not in any sense "standard compatible"--some are not, in fact, specified in\r
169*any* standard. They do, however, represent responses of various authors to\r
170standardization proposals.\r
171\r
172Other time conversion proposals, in particular the one developed by folks at\r
173Hewlett Packard, offer a wider selection of functions that provide capabilities\r
174beyond those provided here. The absence of such functions from this package\r
175is not meant to discourage the development, standardization, or use of such\r
176functions. Rather, their absence reflects the decision to make this package\r
177contain valid extensions to POSIX.1, to ensure its broad\r
178acceptability. If more powerful time conversion functions can be standardized,\r
179so much the better.\r
180\r
181\r
182----- Names of time zone rule files -----\r
183\r
184The time zone rule file naming conventions attempt to strike a balance\r
185among the following goals:\r
186\r
187 * Uniquely identify every national region where clocks have all\r
188 agreed since 1970. This is essential for the intended use: static\r
189 clocks keeping local civil time.\r
190\r
191 * Indicate to humans as to where that region is. This simplifes use.\r
192\r
193 * Be robust in the presence of political changes. This reduces the\r
194 number of updates and backward-compatibility hacks. For example,\r
195 names of countries are ordinarily not used, to avoid\r
196 incompatibilities when countries change their name\r
197 (e.g. Zaire->Congo) or when locations change countries\r
198 (e.g. Hong Kong from UK colony to China).\r
199\r
200 * Be portable to a wide variety of implementations.\r
201 This promotes use of the technology.\r
202\r
203 * Use a consistent naming convention over the entire world.\r
204 This simplifies both use and maintenance.\r
205\r
206This naming convention is not intended for use by inexperienced users\r
207to select TZ values by themselves (though they can of course examine\r
208and reuse existing settings). Distributors should provide\r
209documentation and/or a simple selection interface that explains the\r
210names; see the 'tzselect' program supplied with this distribution for\r
211one example.\r
212\r
213Names normally have the form AREA/LOCATION, where AREA is the name\r
214of a continent or ocean, and LOCATION is the name of a specific\r
215location within that region. North and South America share the same\r
216area, `America'. Typical names are `Africa/Cairo', `America/New_York',\r
217and `Pacific/Honolulu'.\r
218\r
219Here are the general rules used for choosing location names,\r
220in decreasing order of importance:\r
221\r
222 Use only valid POSIX file name components (i.e., the parts of\r
223 names other than `/'). Within a file name component,\r
224 use only ASCII letters, `.', `-' and `_'. Do not use\r
225 digits, as that might create an ambiguity with POSIX\r
226 TZ strings. A file name component must not exceed 14\r
227 characters or start with `-'. E.g., prefer `Brunei'\r
228 to `Bandar_Seri_Begawan'.\r
229 Include at least one location per time zone rule set per country.\r
230 One such location is enough. Use ISO 3166 (see the file\r
231 iso3166.tab) to help decide whether something is a country.\r
232 If all the clocks in a country's region have agreed since 1970,\r
233 don't bother to include more than one location\r
234 even if subregions' clocks disagreed before 1970.\r
235 Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large.\r
236 If a name is ambiguous, use a less ambiguous alternative;\r
237 e.g. many cities are named San Jose and Georgetown, so\r
238 prefer `Costa_Rica' to `San_Jose' and `Guyana' to `Georgetown'.\r
239 Keep locations compact. Use cities or small islands, not countries\r
240 or regions, so that any future time zone changes do not split\r
241 locations into different time zones. E.g. prefer `Paris'\r
242 to `France', since France has had multiple time zones.\r
243 Use mainstream English spelling, e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Roma', and\r
244 prefer `Athens' to the true name (which uses Greek letters).\r
245 The POSIX file name restrictions encourage this rule.\r
246 Use the most populous among locations in a country's time zone,\r
247 e.g. prefer `Shanghai' to `Beijing'. Among locations with\r
248 similar populations, pick the best-known location,\r
249 e.g. prefer `Rome' to `Milan'.\r
250 Use the singular form, e.g. prefer `Canary' to `Canaries'.\r
251 Omit common suffixes like `_Islands' and `_City', unless that\r
252 would lead to ambiguity. E.g. prefer `Cayman' to\r
253 `Cayman_Islands' and `Guatemala' to `Guatemala_City',\r
254 but prefer `Mexico_City' to `Mexico' because the country\r
255 of Mexico has several time zones.\r
256 Use `_' to represent a space.\r
257 Omit `.' from abbreviations in names, e.g. prefer `St_Helena'\r
258 to `St._Helena'.\r
259 Do not change established names if they only marginally\r
260 violate the above rules. For example, don't change\r
261 the existing name `Rome' to `Milan' merely because\r
262 Milan's population has grown to be somewhat greater\r
263 than Rome's.\r
264 If a name is changed, put its old spelling in the `backward' file.\r
265\r
266The file `zone.tab' lists the geographical locations used to name\r
267time zone rule files.\r
268\r
269Older versions of this package used a different naming scheme,\r
270and these older names are still supported.\r
271See the file `backward' for most of these older names\r
272(e.g. `US/Eastern' instead of `America/New_York').\r
273The other old-fashioned names still supported are\r
274`WET', `CET', `MET', `EET' (see the file `europe'),\r
275and `Factory' (see the file `factory').\r
276\r
277\r
278----- Time zone abbreviations -----\r
279\r
280When this package is installed, it generates time zone abbreviations\r
281like `EST' to be compatible with human tradition and POSIX.1.\r
282Here are the general rules used for choosing time zone abbreviations,\r
283in decreasing order of importance:\r
284\r
285 Use abbreviations that consist of three or more ASCII letters.\r
286 Previous editions of this database also used characters like\r
287 ' ' and '?', but these characters have a special meaning to\r
288 the shell and cause commands like\r
289 set `date`\r
290 to have unexpected effects.\r
291 Previous editions of this rule required upper-case letters,\r
292 but the Congressman who introduced Chamorro Standard Time\r
293 preferred "ChST", so the rule has been relaxed.\r
294\r
295 This rule guarantees that all abbreviations could have\r
296 been specified by a POSIX.1 TZ string. POSIX.1\r
297 requires at least three characters for an\r
298 abbreviation. POSIX.1-1996 says that an abbreviation\r
299 cannot start with ':', and cannot contain ',', '-',\r
300 '+', NUL, or a digit. Draft 7 of POSIX 1003.1-200x\r
301 changes this rule to say that an abbreviation can\r
302 contain only '-', '+', and alphanumeric characters in\r
303 the current locale. To be portable to both sets of\r
304 rules, an abbreviation must therefore use only ASCII\r
305 letters, as these are the only letters that are\r
306 alphabetic in all locales.\r
307\r
308 Use abbreviations that are in common use among English-speakers,\r
309 e.g. `EST' for Eastern Standard Time in North America.\r
310 We assume that applications translate them to other languages\r
311 as part of the normal localization process; for example,\r
312 a French application might translate `EST' to `HNE'.\r
313\r
314 For zones whose times are taken from a city's longitude, use the\r
315 traditional xMT notation, e.g. `PMT' for Paris Mean Time.\r
316 The only name like this in current use is `GMT'.\r
317\r
318 If there is no common English abbreviation, abbreviate the English\r
319 translation of the usual phrase used by native speakers.\r
320 If this is not available or is a phrase mentioning the country\r
321 (e.g. ``Cape Verde Time''), then:\r
322\r
323 When a country has a single or principal time zone region,\r
324 append `T' to the country's ISO code, e.g. `CVT' for\r
325 Cape Verde Time. For summer time append `ST';\r
326 for double summer time append `DST'; etc.\r
327 When a country has multiple time zones, take the first three\r
328 letters of an English place name identifying each zone\r
329 and then append `T', `ST', etc. as before;\r
330 e.g. `VLAST' for VLAdivostok Summer Time.\r
331\r
332 Use "zzz" for locations while uninhabited. The mnemonic is that\r
333 these locations are, in some sense, asleep.\r
334\r
335Application writers should note that these abbreviations are ambiguous\r
336in practice: e.g. `EST' has a different meaning in Australia than\r
337it does in the United States. In new applications, it's often better\r
338to use numeric UTC offsets like `-0500' instead of time zone\r
339abbreviations like `EST'; this avoids the ambiguity.\r
340\r
341\r
342----- Calendrical issues -----\r
343\r
344Calendrical issues are a bit out of scope for a time zone database,\r
345but they indicate the sort of problems that we would run into if we\r
346extended the time zone database further into the past. An excellent\r
347resource in this area is Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold,\r
348<a href="http://emr.cs.uiuc.edu/home/reingold/calendar-book/index.shtml">\r
349Calendrical Calculations\r
350</a>, Cambridge University Press (1997). Other information and\r
351sources are given below. They sometimes disagree.\r
352\r
353\r
354France\r
355\r
356Gregorian calendar adopted 1582-12-20.\r
357French Revolutionary calendar used 1793-11-24 through 1805-12-31,\r
358and (in Paris only) 1871-05-06 through 1871-05-23.\r
359\r
360\r
361Russia\r
362\r
363From Chris Carrier <72157.3334@CompuServe.COM> (1996-12-02):\r
364On 1929-10-01 the Soviet Union instituted an ``Eternal Calendar''\r
365with 30-day months plus 5 holidays, with a 5-day week.\r
366On 1931-12-01 it changed to a 6-day week; in 1934 it reverted to the\r
367Gregorian calendar while retaining the 6-day week; on 1940-06-27 it\r
368reverted to the 7-day week. With the 6-day week the usual days\r
369off were the 6th, 12th, 18th, 24th and 30th of the month.\r
370(Source: Evitiar Zerubavel, _The Seven Day Circle_)\r
371\r
372\r
373Mark Brader reported a similar story in "The Book of Calendars", edited\r
374by Frank Parise (1982, Facts on File, ISBN 0-8719-6467-8), page 377. But:\r
375\r
376From: Petteri Sulonen (via Usenet)\r
377Date: 14 Jan 1999 00:00:00 GMT\r
378Message-ID: <Petteri.Sulonen-1401991626030001@lapin-kulta.in.helsinki.fi>\r
379\r
380If your source is correct, how come documents between 1929 -- 1940 were\r
381still dated using the conventional, Gregorian calendar?\r
382\r
383I can post a scan of a document dated December 1, 1934, signed by\r
384Yenukidze, the secretary, on behalf of Kalinin, the President of the\r
385Executive Committee of the Supreme Soviet, if you like.\r
386\r
387\r
388\r
389Sweden (and Finland)\r
390\r
391From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)\r
392<a href="news:1996Jul6.012937.29190@sq.com">\r
393Subject: Re: Gregorian reform -- a part of locale?\r
394</a>\r
395Date: 1996-07-06\r
396\r
397In 1700, Denmark made the transition from Julian to Gregorian. Sweden\r
398decided to *start* a transition in 1700 as well, but rather than have one of\r
399those unsightly calendar gaps :-), they simply decreed that the next leap\r
400year after 1696 would be in 1744 -- putting the whole country on a calendar\r
401different from both Julian and Gregorian for a period of 40 years.\r
402\r
403However, in 1704 something went wrong and the plan was not carried through;\r
404they did, after all, have a leap year that year. And one in 1708. In 1712\r
405they gave it up and went back to Julian, putting 30 days in February that\r
406year!...\r
407\r
408Then in 1753, Sweden made the transition to Gregorian in the usual manner,\r
409getting there only 13 years behind the original schedule.\r
410\r
411(A previous posting of this story was challenged, and Swedish readers\r
412produced the following references to support it: "Tiderakning och historia"\r
413by Natanael Beckman (1924) and "Tid, en bok om tiderakning och\r
414kalendervasen" by Lars-Olof Lode'n (no date was given).)\r
415\r
416\r
417Grotefend's data\r
418\r
419From: "Michael Palmer" <mpalmer@netcom.com> [with one obvious typo fixed]\r
420Subject: Re: Gregorian Calendar (was Re: Another FHC related question\r
421Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.german\r
422Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 02:32:48 -800\r
423Message-ID: <199902091032.CAA09644@netcom10.netcom.com>\r
424\r
425The following is a(n incomplete) listing, arranged chronologically, of\r
426European states, with the date they converted from the Julian to the\r
427Gregorian calendar:\r
428\r
42904/15 Oct 1582 - Italy (with exceptions), Spain, Portugal, Poland (Roman\r
430 Catholics and Danzig only)\r
43109/20 Dec 1582 - France, Lorraine\r
432\r
43321 Dec 1582/\r
434 01 Jan 1583 - Holland, Brabant, Flanders, Hennegau\r
43510/21 Feb 1583 - bishopric of Liege (L"uttich)\r
43613/24 Feb 1583 - bishopric of Augsburg\r
43704/15 Oct 1583 - electorate of Trier\r
43805/16 Oct 1583 - Bavaria, bishoprics of Freising, Eichstedt, Regensburg,\r
439 Salzburg, Brixen\r
44013/24 Oct 1583 - Austrian Oberelsass and Breisgau\r
44120/31 Oct 1583 - bishopric of Basel\r
44202/13 Nov 1583 - duchy of J"ulich-Berg\r
44302/13 Nov 1583 - electorate and city of K"oln\r
44404/15 Nov 1583 - bishopric of W"urzburg\r
44511/22 Nov 1583 - electorate of Mainz\r
44616/27 Nov 1583 - bishopric of Strassburg and the margraviate of Baden\r
44717/28 Nov 1583 - bishopric of M"unster and duchy of Cleve\r
44814/25 Dec 1583 - Steiermark\r
449\r
45006/17 Jan 1584 - Austria and Bohemia\r
45111/22 Jan 1584 - Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Zug, Freiburg, Solothurn\r
45212/23 Jan 1584 - Silesia and the Lausitz\r
45322 Jan/\r
454 02 Feb 1584 - Hungary (legally on 21 Oct 1587)\r
455 Jun 1584 - Unterwalden\r
45601/12 Jul 1584 - duchy of Westfalen\r
457\r
45816/27 Jun 1585 - bishopric of Paderborn\r
459\r
46014/25 Dec 1590 - Transylvania\r
461\r
46222 Aug/\r
463 02 Sep 1612 - duchy of Prussia\r
464\r
46513/24 Dec 1614 - Pfalz-Neuburg\r
466\r
467 1617 - duchy of Kurland (reverted to the Julian calendar in\r
468 1796)\r
469\r
470 1624 - bishopric of Osnabr"uck\r
471\r
472 1630 - bishopric of Minden\r
473\r
47415/26 Mar 1631 - bishopric of Hildesheim\r
475\r
476 1655 - Kanton Wallis\r
477\r
47805/16 Feb 1682 - city of Strassburg\r
479\r
48018 Feb/\r
481 01 Mar 1700 - Protestant Germany (including Swedish possessions in\r
482 Germany), Denmark, Norway\r
48330 Jun/\r
484 12 Jul 1700 - Gelderland, Zutphen\r
48510 Nov/\r
486 12 Dec 1700 - Utrecht, Overijssel\r
487\r
48831 Dec 1700/\r
489 12 Jan 1701 - Friesland, Groningen, Z"urich, Bern, Basel, Geneva,\r
490 Turgau, and Schaffhausen\r
491\r
492 1724 - Glarus, Appenzell, and the city of St. Gallen\r
493\r
49401 Jan 1750 - Pisa and Florence\r
495\r
49602/14 Sep 1752 - Great Britain\r
497\r
49817 Feb/\r
499 01 Mar 1753 - Sweden\r
500\r
5011760-1812 - Graub"unden\r
502\r
503The Russian empire (including Finland and the Baltic states) did not\r
504convert to the Gregorian calendar until the Soviet revolution of 1917.\r
505\r
506Source: H. Grotefend, _Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung des deutschen\r
507Mittelalters und der Neuzeit_, herausgegeben von Dr. O. Grotefend\r
508(Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1941), pp. 26-28.\r
509\r
510\r
511----- Time and time zones on Mars -----\r
512\r
513Some people have adjusted their work schedules to fit Mars time.\r
514Dozens of special Mars watches were built for Jet Propulsion\r
515Laboratory workers who kept Mars time during the Mars Exploration\r
516Rovers mission (2004). These timepieces look like normal Seikos and\r
517Citizens but use Mars seconds rather than terrestrial seconds.\r
518\r
519A Mars solar day is called a "sol" and has a mean period equal to\r
520about 24 hours 39 minutes 35.244 seconds in terrestrial time. It is\r
521divided into a conventional 24-hour clock, so each Mars second equals\r
522about 1.02749125 terrestrial seconds.\r
523\r
524The prime meridian of Mars goes through the center of the crater\r
525Airy-0, named in honor of the British astronomer who built the\r
526Greenwich telescope that defines Earth's prime meridian. Mean solar\r
527time on the Mars prime meridian is called Mars Coordinated Time (MTC).\r
528\r
529Each landed mission on Mars has adopted a different reference for\r
530solar time keeping, so there is no real standard for Mars time zones.\r
531For example, the Mars Exploration Rover project (2004) defined two\r
532time zones "Local Solar Time A" and "Local Solar Time B" for its two\r
533missions, each zone designed so that its time equals local true solar\r
534time at approximately the middle of the nominal mission. Such a "time\r
535zone" is not particularly suited for any application other than the\r
536mission itself.\r
537\r
538Many calendars have been proposed for Mars, but none have achieved\r
539wide acceptance. Astronomers often use Mars Sol Date (MSD) which is a\r
540sequential count of Mars solar days elapsed since about 1873-12-29\r
54112:00 GMT.\r
542\r
543The tz database does not currently support Mars time, but it is\r
544documented here in the hopes that support will be added eventually.\r
545\r
546Sources:\r
547\r
548Michael Allison and Robert Schmunk,\r
549"Technical Notes on Mars Solar Time as Adopted by the Mars24 Sunclock"\r
550<http://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html> (2004-03-15).\r
551\r
552Jia-Rui Chong, "Workdays Fit for a Martian", Los Angeles Times\r
553(2004-01-14), pp A1, A20-A21.\r