Subject: FITS keywords and the year 2000 problem

From: "William T.(Tom) Bridgman" <bridgman at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:24:04 -0400

We've been examining a number of our FITS file generators and are 
concerned about possible Y2K problems in our archived FITS files.

The NOST standard seems to restrict the DATE and DATE-OBS keywords to 
dd/mm/yy format for generating human-readable dates.  We often utilize 
other date formats (yyyy.ddd and TJD) with mission-defined keywords 
which avoid this problem but we are still concerned.  

Naturally, we could also define additional keywords to produce 
alternative human-readable dates in dd/mm/yyyy format but we're 
wondering if there are plans to appropriately update the standards.

Thanks,
Tom
-- 
Tom Bridgman                             bridgman at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center         301-286-1346
Code 660.1
Greenbelt, MD 20771

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From: bschlesinger at nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov (Barry M. Schlesinger)
Date: 5 Aug 1997 13:11 EDT

In article <33E74594.2455 at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov>, bridgman at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov writes...
>dd/mm/yy format for generating human-readable dates ...  we're 
There is currently a proposal under consideration by the IAU FITS 
Working Group that provides a new date format with a four-digit year. 
The text is available at
ftp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/fits/year2000_proposal.txt. 

					Barry Schlesinger
                                        FITS Support Office
                                        GSFC/ADF