Leap Second Added to GLONASS for 2017: What to Expect from Your Receiver

Everything You Need to Know about the Leap Second Added to GLONASS for 2017

PRODUCT AFFECTED:

Arrow 100, Arrow 200, Arrow Gold

SCOPE:

On December 31st, 2016 at 23h59m59s, a positive leap second was inserted into the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This leap second added to GLONASS may have introduced some disruption when it occurred. For the Arrow Series™ receivers that are capable of tracking GLONASS (i.e., Arrow 100, Arrow 200, Arrow Gold), users may have experienced issues with GLONASS signal tracking during this event.

The duration of the GLONASS tracking interruption should have not been greater than 60 minutes.

When this leap second was added, the GLONASS tracking may have been temporarily interrupted on receivers in operation on December 31st, 2016. Because GPS tracking was not impacted, these receivers would have continued to compute a position by using the GPS constellation.

Returning to normal after the leap second:

GLONASS tracking will return to normal once a new GPS almanac is downloaded. Arrow users do not need to manually download this new almanac, because each Arrow receiver will do this automatically.

However, any receiver that has not been powered on for some time prior to the introduction of the new leap second — or any receiver that has had its current almanac cleared manually — will require a new GPS almanac to be downloaded.