Latest news with #atomicclock
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Science
- Telegraph
The Royal Navy gadget that could bring signal jamming to an end
The Royal Navy will work with a new type of clock at sea that could bring malicious jamming attacks to an end. The Navy's clocks have traditionally been tied to satellites to determine the time while at sea – an essential part of navigation – but this can be vulnerable to interference and sabotage. However, in what has been hailed as a world first, a new atomic clock was able to function continuously aboard HMS Pursuer in the Solent area over three days during rough sea conditions. Named the AQlock, the device, roughly the size of a shoebox, does not have to rely on conventional position, navigation and timing, which is provided almost completely through Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to determine time while at sea. The Government has warned a reliance on GNSS makes it susceptible to signal jamming – an attack that involves broadcasting radio waves to create interference – and spoofing, in which fake signals are transmitted to confuse systems. The clock, made by quantum sensing specialists Aquark Technologies, did not have to rely on corrections to time from GNSS and instead detected any changes by comparing the frequency of clock ticks to that of atoms. Meanwhile, rather than being launched into space the device was kept close to the point of activity and operation, which meant it was not vulnerable to jamming compared with a typical satellite in space, typically 20,000km away. By demonstrating its ability to continuously operate on board the vessel, it has shown how a global reliance on GNSS military operations, infrastructure, telecommunications, finance, transportation, and many other sectors can be reduced. Dr Alex Jantzen, Aquark Technologies chief executive, told The Telegraph: 'This is a ground-based alternative for navigation so that we won't need satellites any more. 'We've taken this high level performance clock and instead of placing it on a satellite we kept it close to the point of activity and operation, showing it no longer has to be kept at a distance.' Potential antidote to spoofing Dr Jantzen explained it was critical to ensure the atoms were cold, kept at a temperature of -273.149996C, 'the coldest place in the universe'. 'The atoms move very quickly if not kept at this temperature,' he said. 'With the atoms, by cooling them down, we make measurements of their properties and use them to stabilise the clock. That's what we count our seconds with.' The clock, built in less than a year, was tested at a national physical laboratory before it was deployed on the boat. Dr Jantzen added: 'A spoofed clock can often not return to the correct time without being hard restarted, whereas a jammed one can resync when signal is back. Having found a potential antidote to spoofing marks a critical development in this juncture.' The company worked with the Ministry of Defence 's defence science and technology laboratory to trial the device. Dr Matthew Aldous, the principal quantum scientist, said: 'The defence science and technology laboratory is pleased to have played a pivotal role in supporting Aquark and the Royal Navy in trialling this emerging technology. 'There is huge potential for quantum systems to unlock future capability, and rigorous testing in deployed environments is key to understanding the right applications for them. 'As these tools progress in maturity and ruggedness, we look forward to further opportunities to bring them to bear on real challenges faced by defence and security personnel.' Chester Butterworth, the head of the strategy, disruptive capabilities and technologies office, said: 'The Royal Navy remains committed to exploring disruptive technologies that offer the potential for significant operational advantage. 'The outcome of this trial aligns with the UK's sovereign capability goals and paves the way for future innovation that will enable the Royal Navy to leverage best-in-class technologies. 'The capabilities of Aquark's system to improve existing position, navigation and timing methods, outside of the laboratory and in harsh, remote environments, is a milestone achieved by very few systems to date.'
Washington Post
17-05-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
NIST set its new atomic clock in motion, and it's astoundingly precise
A new atomic clock is one of the world's best timekeepers, researchers say — and after years of development, the 'fountain'-style clock is now in use helping keep official U.S. time. Known as NIST-F4, the clock is at the Boulder, Colorado, campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The clock relies on cesium atoms, which oscillate between quantum states at a frequency of over 9 billion times per second. NIST-F4 uses lasers to cool a ball of cesium atoms to near absolute zero, then measures the frequency of the atoms as they pass through a microwave chamber. As they rise and fall like water in a fountain, the atoms oscillate, 'ticking' more than 9 billion times per second. The length of that second is so reliable that the clock would be off by less than a second if it had started running 100 million years ago, researchers say. In an article in Metrologia evaluating the clock's accuracy, researchers say the clock is accurate enough to help calibrate coordinated universal time (UTC). It took months to assess the super-precise clock, its inventors say. All that testing was worth it: The agency 'has already benefited significantly from the fountain's high uptime and the reliability of its performance,' Liz Donley, chief of NIST's time and frequency division, said in a news release. Once certified by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), NIST-F4 will become one of a small cadre of clocks used to calibrate coordinated universal time. It's already in use as part of the agency's UTC(NIST) timescale, which provides official time for the United States.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Physicists create groundbreaking atomic clock that's off by less than 1 second every 100 million years
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Scientists have developed one of the most precise atomic clocks ever built, and they plan to use it as a reference clock to define time itself. Based on the rising and falling of cesium atoms under a microwave beam, the NIST-F4 atomic clock is so reliable that if it had started to run when dinosaurs existed 100 million years ago it would be off by less than a second today, according to its creators. The clockmakers, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, published details of the NIST-F4's workings April 15 in the journal Metrologia. Running as of April 2025, the new clock is pending approval before it joins roughly 450 other clocks worldwide in defining Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the global system for measuring the ultraprecise beat of a second. Time signals are "used literally billions of times each day for everything from setting clocks and watches to ensuring the accurate time stamping of hundreds of billions of dollars of electronic financial transactions," Liz Donley, chief of the Time and Frequency Division at NIST, said in a statement. (Donley is not credited as one of the new paper's authors). The growing need for more precise timekeeping means that scientists are always working to develop better reference clocks — ones that define the time others are set by. Unlike their everyday counterparts, these reference devices are atomic clocks, deriving their ticks from the vibrations of atoms. Related: 'A dream come true': Nuclear clock breakthrough could revolutionize study of the universe's fundamental forces NIST-F4 is a type of atomic clock known as a fountain clock, containing a cloud of thousands cesium atoms cooled to near absolute zero using lasers. The atoms are then thrown upwards under the impulse provided by a pair of laser beams, then fall under their own weight while passing through a microwave beam tuned to make the atoms oscillate. Counting this frequency (which occurs 9,192,631,770 times every second) enables scientists to precisely define the international second. But that's the relatively simple part. To ensure NIST-F4's reliability, the scientists had to account for every source of miniscule noise that could affect the cesium atoms' vibrations. These include quantum cross-talk with other atoms; microwave leakage and lensing effects; and subtle distortions in the electromagnetic fields generated by the lasers. The team began making these tweaks in 2020, four years after the agency's first fountain clock, NIST-F1, was decommissioned for restoration. This work included rebuilding the microwave cavity at the core of the clock from scratch. "Evaluating a fountain clock like NIST-F4 is a slow process," first study author Vladislav Gerginov, a physicist at NIST who worked on the new design, said in the statement. "We have to be very conservative. We should know everything about it." RELATED STORIES — How long is a second? — New 'microcomb' chip brings us closer to super accurate, fingertip-sized atomic clocks —Cosmic-ray 'GPS' system that tracks underground movement could change the way we respond to disasters The result is a clock with a total a total systematic uncertainty of 2.2×10⁻¹⁶ — a precision that means it loses less than a second every 140 million years. This extremely subtle lag is the product of noise from the randomness inherent in quantum measurements, a factor the scientists say could be reduced with better oscillators and refined laser cooling. NIST-F4 will tick alongside its precursor clock NIST-F3. The newer clock will operate around 90% of the time, and at least one of the clocks will run at any given time. Data from both will be periodically sent to BIPM to calibrate UTC, and keep the world ticking on beat.
