Science Breakthrough - Atomic Clocks to Become More Accurate

CENTRAL WATCH

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Extremely precise time keeping is not just a question of scientific achievement, but also a key to modern technologies such as GPS and mobile phone networks. Did you know, an error of one nanosecond for a GPS alters the location about 12 inches off?

The new optical atomic clock may just fix this issue.

Here is an excerpt from Huffington Post's article discussing the current vs the new atomic clocks:

To ensure maximum precision, the U.S. national time standard is determined by atomic clocks. Current ones use extremely cold cesium atoms, laser-cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero. The cesium atoms are then blasted with microwaves until the atoms vibrate at a certain frequency. That frequency is equal to the energy that gets absorbed when the microwave radiation causes the cesium atom's outermost electron to jump to a higher orbit, or 9,192,631,770 Hz. What we call "the second" is then derived from the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of this frequency. 

Now physicists are developing new optical atomic clocks which could be about 100 times more precise than microwave-based ones. They operate in a similar manner, but use laser light instead of microwaves. Laser light has a much higher frequency and hence gives much better timing resolution and much faster transmission of data. 

As the optical atomic clocks continue to develop, problems in the Earth's atmosphere is something they will have to face. For instance, dense fog, wind, rain, or any other atmospheric turbulence. In the future, these clocks could be used to create more precise GPS systems and even be used for satellite-based experiments to prove Einstein's theory of general relativity.