[tz] Time zone in Troll station

[Paul-Inge Flakstad]

Hi Paul and Bengt-Inge,

Troll was established in 1989/90, and was originally a summer station. However, this changed in 2005, when Troll was re-opened as a year-round station. At the same time, Troll Airfield was also officially opened.

About the time zone at Troll:

UTC+1/UTC+2:
(This is Norwegian time, with UTC+2 being DST.) The Norwegian Polar Institute’s overwintering team at Troll follow Norwegian time during the Antarctic winter season (typically March–October, inclusive). During this period they are alone at Troll, and the practice of using Norwegian time is in place simply to make communication with the head office in Norway more convenient.

UTC+0:
During the Antarctic summer season (the "busy" season).

The exact switch dates will vary along with when the winter season starts and ends. Typically the winter season spans from the last week of February to the first week of November – but note that “typically” is the key word here; Weather conditions and other circumstances make it practically impossible for us to have any specific dates carved in stone.

I recently had a long dialog about this with the developer of timegenie.com. In the absence of specific dates, he decided to choose some likely ones:

    GMT +1 — From March 1 to the last Sunday in March
    GMT +2 — From the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October
    GMT +1 — From the last Sunday in October until November 7
    GMT +0 — From November 7 until March 1

The dates for switching to and from UTC+0 will probably not be absolutely correct, but they should be quite close to the actual dates.

I hope this answered your questions. Please don't hesitate to contact me again if there is need for further clarification.

Best regards,
Paul-Inge Flakstad
Web developer, Norwegian Polar Institute
flakstad at npolar.no  |  +47 777 50 639

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Eggert [mailto:eggert at cs.ucla.edu] 
Sent: 8. mars 2014 08:19
To: Bengt-Inge Larsson; tz at iana.org
Cc: Paul-Inge Flakstad
Subject: Re: [tz] Time zone in Troll station

Bengt-Inge Larsson wrote:
> The Troll station station officially uses UTC+0. During the dark season March-October, when no air or overland travel is done, it uses Norwegian summertime UTC+2 to simplify communication.
> So I suggest you add a new zone called Antarctica/Troll
>
> You may confirm this through Paul-Inge Flakstad at the Norwegian Polar 
> Institute  (flakstad at npolar.no  )

Thanks for the heads-up.  To create an entry we'll need some more-detailed information.  Do they switch local clocks from UTC directly to UTC+2 regularly each year, or is the switchover irregular and informal?  Likewise for the switch from UTC+2 back to UTC.  For a tz entry we'll need exact switchover times.

Is the official time (UTC) the time that people at the station normally use when coordinating with each other?

When has the current station been inhabited?  As I understand it, it was intended to be year-round but has been closed some winters.

Thanks.