Ron Eisenberg, division vice president of Whiting-Turner Contracting Company; Capt. Clayton Mitchell, operations officer for NAVFAC Washington; Vice President Richard Cheney; John Grimes, assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration; and Naval Observatory Superintendent Capt. Steve Warren prepare to cut the ribbon dedicating the new Master Clock Facility at the USNO on Nov. 6.
On Nov. 7, the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), with the help of the Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, formally dedicated its new Master Clock Facility. The new facility will be the repository of the most accurate time-scale available in the world.
Within the walls of the new building, the Observatory’s Time Service Department will install and maintain the world’s largest collection of ‘‘atomic clocks,” including three next-generation Rubidium Atomic Frequency Fountain clocks, which together with dozens of Cesium-beam and Hydrogen maser clocks, will keep time so accurately that the system will not gain or lose more than one second in 30 million years.
The new facility, built by the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company under the supervision of Naval Facilities and Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Washington, incorporates an elaborate environmental control system to keep the clocks in strictly regimented temperature and humidity conditions. The building’s temperature will be regulated to +⁄- 0.1C and its humidity will be controlled to within a 3 percent tolerance.
The Honorable John G. Grimes, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration⁄Chief Information Officer, was the keynote speaker for the dedication engagement.
‘‘I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that we have one time standard within the Department; the Naval Observatory Master Clock is this Standard,” Grimes said, ‘‘for without this Standard, operations will fail.
‘‘This time standard is vital for [the] data fusion of intelligence information, proper operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS), reliable network performance, consistent and secure communications and maintaining the critical national infrastructure.”
The U.S. Naval Observatory has been keeping time for the Department of the Navy and for the nation since the year 1845, when Superintendent Matthew F. Maury first put the Washington Time Ball into operation.
Timekeeping procedures and technology have evolved dramatically since that time, and the USNO Time Services Department has aggressively developed new timing methods and timekeeping equipment to meet increasingly rigorous requirements.
The Observatory’s current Master Clock ensemble consists of roughly one-third of the world’s operational atomic clocks and accounts for one-third the weight of Universal Coordinated Time (UTC).
The new Master Clock Facility will house three of the most precise clocks ever built, the USNO’s Rubidium Atomic Frequency Fountain devices.
The new USNO Master Clock facility, with its advanced Atomic Frequency Fountains, assures that the Department of Defense and U.S. global supremacy in time will be maintained well into the future. USNO will remain the Gold Standard for global precision timing.
For more information about the new Master Clock facility, please contact the USNO Public Affairs Office at 202-762-1489.
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