Zulu time

Zulu Time

Zulu Time, also known as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), is a time standard used in aviation, computing, navigation, weather forecasting, and many other fields. It is the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) but is used as a time standard instead of a time zone.

History

The term "Zulu" is a phonetic alphabet code word for the letter "Z", which stands for zero in the context of time zones. Zulu Time was established as part of the International Meridian Conference in 1884, where it was decided that the Prime Meridian should pass through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This made GMT the world's time standard.

Usage

Zulu Time is used worldwide in aviation and the military to avoid confusion about time zones and daylight saving time. For example, a flight from New York to London would use Zulu Time to coordinate takeoff and landing times. It is also used in fields like computing and weather forecasting where a common time reference is needed.

Conversion

To convert Zulu Time to local time, one must know the local time zone offset from UTC. For example, Eastern Standard Time (EST) is UTC-5 hours. Therefore, to convert 1200 Zulu Time to EST, one would subtract five hours, resulting in a local time of 0700.

See also

• Time zone
• Universal Time
• Greenwich Mean Time
• International Atomic Time
• Daylight saving time