International Atomic Time ( In French: Temps Atomic International) : an international time scale with a continuous temporal reference calculated at the BIPM using data from some two hundred atomic clocks in over fifty national laboratories; the scale unit of TAI is kept as close as possible to SI second. BIPM estimates that TAI does not lose or gain with respect to an imaginary perfect clock by more than about one tenth of a microsecond (0.0000001 second) per year. TAI is a uniform and stable scale which does not, therefore, keep in step with the slightly irregular rotation of the Earth. For public and practical purposes it is necessary to have a scale that, in the long term, does. Such a scale is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). SI second BIPM UTC economics
International Atomic Time, the time scale (in the sense of “what time is it?â€) from which UTC is derived. (You set your watch to UTC.) Determined by the BIPM with input from various national standards organizations such as NIST; see the BIPM's time scale page. See also NIST's Time & Frequency Division.