How GMT is being used today...

GMT is used everyday and touches almost everyone's life although they probably doesn't know about it!

Uses of GMT include:

• Email

• Cookies

• NASA Space Shuttle

• Electronic Documents

• Weather Maps

• News Media

• Aircraft Systems

• Ham Radio (DXers)

Emails - every email in the world

Do your emails display something like:

Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 22:34:42 -0500

and ever wondered what the -0500 (or equivalent number) means?

It is the time offset from GMT IE GMT-5

I.E. In this example EST (Eastern Standard Time is 5 hours behind GMT)

Cookies

They work on GMT and only GMT!

NASA Space Shuttle

• Today the US Space Shuttle uses Greenwich Mean Time

Question: While in space, what time do you synchronize your watches with (if you use watches)? That is, what time zone do you go by so that you know when to sleep, etc.?

Answer: The answer to that, is: On the shuttle we use mission elapsed time. This is kept by the computers as soon as launch is initiated. And once we are on orbit, we have our own watches that we then set to the computer’s time so that we each are keeping track of our duties according to the mission elapsed time. When we docked to the (International Space) station, they used Greenwich Mean Time, GMT, and so whenever we did tasks that went back and forth between the station and shuttle, sometimes we had to do a little math in our head to make sure the times were proper. For example: when we got prepared to do spacewalks and so forth. So anyway, on the shuttle we use mission elapsed time, and on the station, they use Greenwich Mean Time.

Electronic Documents

CREST the UK equity settlement system

CREST is the new UK equity share settlement system. It will operate using GMT all year round.

Weather Maps

The Weather Channel: www.weather.com - Weather maps timed to GMT

The US Government National Weather Service uses UTC (GMT): www.nws.noaa.gov 

USA: Remote Automated Weather Stations

There are nearly 1,500 interagency Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) strategically located throughout the United States – mostly in the Western states. These stations monitor the weather. Weather data assists land management agencies with a variety of projects – monitoring air quality, rating fire danger, and providing information for research applicati.

News Media

New stories around the world are posted at times specified by GMT

www.reuters.com 

www.cnn.com (specifies time in EST and GMT)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/  BBC News

Aircraft Systems

www.faa.gov 

UTC: Coordinated Universal Time (abbreviated as UTC, and therefore often spelled out as Universal Time Coordinated and sometimes as Universal Coordinated Time) is the standard time common to every place in the world. Formerly and still widely called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and also World Time, UTC nominally reflects the mean solar time along the Earth's prime meridian.

Amateur Radio

Radio hams or DXers across the planet communicate at schedules set by GMT

Info here: website