What is a leap second?
The Earth is constantly undergoing a deceleration caused by the braking action of the ocean tides. Through the use of ancient observations of eclipses, it is possible to determine the deceleration of the Earth to be roughly 2 milliseconds per day per century. This is an effect which causes the Earth's rotational time to slow with respect to the atomic clock time. Since it has been about 1 century since the defining epoch (i.e., the duration since 1900), the difference has accumulated to roughly 2 milliseconds per day. Other factors also affect the Earth's dynamics, some in unpredictable ways, so that it is necessary to monitor the Earth's rotation continuously.
Here is a complete table of leap seconds that have been added since 1972:
1972 JAN 1 =JD 2441317.5 TAI-UTC= 10.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1972 JUL 1 =JD 2441499.5 TAI-UTC= 11.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1973 JAN 1 =JD 2441683.5 TAI-UTC= 12.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1974 JAN 1 =JD 2442048.5 TAI-UTC= 13.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1975 JAN 1 =JD 2442413.5 TAI-UTC= 14.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1976 JAN 1 =JD 2442778.5 TAI-UTC= 15.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1977 JAN 1 =JD 2443144.5 TAI-UTC= 16.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1978 JAN 1 =JD 2443509.5 TAI-UTC= 17.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1979 JAN 1 =JD 2443874.5 TAI-UTC= 18.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1980 JAN 1 =JD 2444239.5 TAI-UTC= 19.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1981 JUL 1 =JD 2444786.5 TAI-UTC= 20.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1982 JUL 1 =JD 2445151.5 TAI-UTC= 21.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1983 JUL 1 =JD 2445516.5 TAI-UTC= 22.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1985 JUL 1 =JD 2446247.5 TAI-UTC= 23.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1988 JAN 1 =JD 2447161.5 TAI-UTC= 24.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1990 JAN 1 =JD 2447892.5 TAI-UTC= 25.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1991 JAN 1 =JD 2448257.5 TAI-UTC= 26.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1992 JUL 1 =JD 2448804.5 TAI-UTC= 27.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1993 JUL 1 =JD 2449169.5 TAI-UTC= 28.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1994 JUL 1 =JD 2449534.5 TAI-UTC= 29.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1996 JAN 1 =JD 2450083.5 TAI-UTC= 30.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1997 JUL 1 =JD 2450630.5 TAI-UTC= 31.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
1999 JAN 1 =JD 2451179.5 TAI-UTC= 32.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
2006 JAN 1 =JD 2453736.5 TAI-UTC= 33.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
2009 JAN 1 =JD 2454832.5 TAI-UTC= 34.0 S + (MJD - 41317.) X 0.0 S
There you have it. The Earth is slowing down and has so since 1972 at a rate detectable by atomic clocks.
