Greenwich Mean Time(GMT) is themeansolar timeat theRoyal ObservatoryinGreenwich,London. GMT was formerly used as the international civil time standard, now superseded in that function byCoordinated Universal Time (UTC). Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes (but this is not formalized) and for navigation is considered equivalent toUT1(the modern form of mean solar time at 0° longitude); these two meanings can differ by up to 0.9 s. Consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Because of Earth's uneven speed in its ellipticalorbitand itsaxial tilt, noon (12:00:00) GMT is rarely the exact moment thesuncrosses theGreenwich meridianand reaches its highest point in the sky there. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, a discrepancy calculated by theequation of time. Noon GMT is the annual average (i.e., "mean") moment of this event, which accounts for the word "mean" in "Greenwich Mean Time". Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight. To avoid confusion, the nameUniversal Timewas introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so that each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1. The term "GMT" is especially used by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as theBBC World Service, theRoyal Navy, theMet Officeand others particularly in Arab countries, such as the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and OSN. It is a term commonly used in the United Kingdom and countries of theCommonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Malaysia; and in many other countries of the eastern hemisphere. In some countries (Britain for example) Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is see "GMT in legislation" below.