BIPM - SIM UTC Summer School

Date and venue

• 7-9 May 2025
• CENAM, Queretaro Mexico

Overview

This workshop, jointly organized by CENAM, SIM, and the BIPM, and kindly sponsored by the IEEE UFFC Society, covered key topics through tutorial lectures with an emphasis on hands-on training with analysis tools, and laboratory demonstrations. Participants gained practical experience in GNSS receiver operation and calibration, clock data analysis, time scale generation, and time transfer techniques relevant to UTC(k) operations.

The objective of the workshop was to support institutes in improving their national standard time and their contributions to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), particularly through participation in BIPM Circular T and by strengthening knowledge in time and frequency metrology.

Held over three days from May 7–9, 2025, the workshop was tailored for skill development and knowledge sharing. The schedule was designed to help newcomers who are engineers, scientists, and technical staff at time laboratories to build foundational understanding in maintaining a national time scale. This included analyzing clock data, generating and steering an averaged time scale, and applying GNSS time transfer techniques.

The program combined tutorial lectures, practical sessions using analysis tools, and laboratory demonstrations to help participants gain both basic and in-depth technical knowledge of UTC and UTC(k) operations.

Programme

The presentations can be downloaded below.

Tutorials presentations:

1. Patrizia Tavella (BIPM): "UTC, its computation and traceability and Circular T requirements"
2. Andrew Novick (NIST) and Mauricio López (Cinvestav): "UTC(k) and its realization and national distribution"
3. Oscar Fallas (ICE) and Claudia Rodriguez (INM), Andrew Novick (NIST): "NTP dissemination services and automated monitoring"
4. Giulio Tagliaferro (BIPM): "Clock comparisons using GNSS"
5. Patrizia Tavella (BIPM): "Basics of time and frequency analysis"
6. Tara Fortier (NIST): "Future outlook on optical clocks, frequency combs and optical timescales"

SIM RMO best practices and innovative solutions:

7. Raul Solis (CENAMEP AIP): "Environmental Condition data collection in UTC Laboratories"
8. Juan Jose Mendoza Aguirre (IBMETRO): "IBMETRO: Time and Frequency Laboratory Current Status"
9. Terrence Jones (JBS): "Activities at the Bureau of Standards Jamaica: Developing a Time Monitoring and Synchronization Service"
10. Ricardo Gutiérrez (CENAM): "Calibrations with frequency comb and link with TAI"

Laboratory demonstrations:

11. Andre Novick and Ben Pera (NIST): "NIST TMAS 2.0 and Common View"
12. Diego Luna (INTI): "Live demonstration 2: GNSS receiver operation, set up and calibration Part 1"
13. Ricardo Gutiérrez and Carlos Andrés Ortiz Cardona (CENAM): "Live Demonstration 2 Part 2.1 CABDLY and REFDLY Measurements"
14. Carlos Andrés Ortiz Cardona (CENAM): "Procedure for computing raw differences of GNSS code measurements for geodetic receivers"
15. Nelida Diaz: "Time scale steering with training timescale"

Hands-on learning:

16. Bharath Vattikonda: "Processing of CGGTTS data"
17. Bharath Vattikonda: "Clock Data Analysis and Visualization"
18. Bharath Vattikonda: "Validating clock data format with BIPM convention"

Disclaimer

FOR THOSE WISHING TO USE THE MATERIALS: All materials are provided to users as reading materials and for guidance in their work. It is allowed to use the materials for non-commercial internal training purposes, as long as due reference is made to the author and his/her institutional affiliation. Use of the material in external training courses requires the prior written agreement of the BIPM.

The author and/or institution are the owner of the copyright and have exclusive right for modification. The presentations may be used in accordance with the above either:

• in their original form without change of any sort, retaining and presenting the authors name and affiliation, which must be shown and cannot be altered.
• extracts of individual slides (or other extracts) with appropriate acknowledgment of the source added on each and every slide used (‘Courtesy of [name of author and institution]’).

Contact

Questions of comments can be directed to patrizia.tavella(a)bipm.org.

Presentations