Unless sub-second accuracy is required, I'd be in favour of UT1. It doesn't use SI seconds (while TAI and UTC do), but it has the advantage that a day has exact

Unless sub-second accuracy is required, I'd be in favour of UT1. It doesn't use SI seconds (while TAI and UTC do), but it has the advantage that a day has exactly 86400 seconds, so you don't ever have to deal with "23:59:60" timestamps. Summary: UT1 - noon is when the sun is above you, day has 86400 seconds (not SI seconds) TAI - noon drifts away from when the sun is above you, day has 86400 SI seconds UTC - noon is when the sun is above you (+/- 1 second), day has 86400+/-1 SI seconds Difference UT1-TAI: continuously diverging Difference UT1-UTC: continuously diverging up to less than +/-1 second, then discretely jumps back when it gets too big (leap seconds) Difference TAI-UTC: increasing in discrete increments of +/-1 full second (leap seconds)