FIRMS: What is UTC?

[Earthdata-EDL - wxedward]

What is UTC?

UTC is known as "Universal Coordinated Time”, “Coordinated Universal Time” or “Zulu Time”. It is a worldwide scientific standard of timekeeping. Its reference point is Greenwich, England: when it is midnight there on Earth's prime meridian, it is midnight (00:00:00.000000). UTC can be converted to local standard time for a particular time zone by adding or subtracting the time difference between UTC and that time zone. Please see this World Time Zone Map to visualize time zones boundaries and differences between UTC and local standard time for the respective time zones. Please note when daylight savings time is applied in a given time one hour should be subtracted from the UTC/time zone difference.

[whattimeisin]

Even with good explanations, UTC time conversion is still a real challenge, especially for people who love NASA content and follow launches, spacewalks, or live events from different parts of the world.

I personally ran into this a lot because I travel frequently and I’m really into science. What helped me was using https://whattimeis.in/
. It lets me see the exact local time for my current location based on a UTC value, without doing mental math or worrying about daylight saving time.

For example, if NASA announces something at 17:00 UTC, I just open a link like this:
https://whattimeis.in/17-00-in-UTC

I simply switch the time to the 24-hour format (5 PM → 17), and the page instantly shows the correct local time wherever I am.

Tools like this make following global, science-driven content much easier and help avoid missing important moments because of time zone confusion.