NIST's New Atomic Clock Is So Precise Our Ability To Measure Gravity Constrains Its Accuracy (vice.com)

dmoberhaus writes: Researchers at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed an atomic clock that is so precise that our models of Earth's gravity aren't accurate enough to keep up with it. As detailed in a paper published this week in Nature, the atomic clock could pave the way for creating an unprecedented map of the way the Earth's gravity distorts spacetime and even shed light on the development of the early universe. "The level of clock performance being reported is such that we don't actually know how to account for it well enough to support the level of performance the clock achieves," Andrew Ludlow, a physicist at NIST and the project lead on the organization's new atomic clock, told me on the phone. "Right now the state of the art techniques aren't quite good enough so we're limited by how well we understand gravity on different parts of the Earth."

Comments

And behind Door #2 time is running out for

[niftymitch]

And behind Door #2 time is running out for WWVB.
The low frequency WWVB standard and short wave clock time standards seem have time running
out for them.
https://www.voanews.com/a/time...

It may simply be that we will know with more precision when infrastructure has its plug pulled.

GPS time is likely better than NTP time for computers.
Clocks like this may allow for the elimination of almost all Olympic timing errors and ties.
I can see headlines... runners fail to best Usain Bolt's best time by one Picosecond +/- 2.7 Femtoseconds.