The year will be one second longer than planned because of the addition of a leap second, designed to compensate for the slowing of the Earth's rotation. It sometimes speeds up and sometimes slows down because our planet "brakes" for ocean waves.
This means the final minute of 2016 will last for 61 seconds.
He told The Independent earlier this year: “The Moon raises tides on the Earth, and tidal bulges occur in the oceans. But because the Earth spins faster than the Moon goes round the Earth, it pulls the tidal bulge away from the point that’s directly under the Moon.
“The moon doesn’t like that, and says, ‘Hey, that’s my tidal bulge’ and pulls back on it. The net effect of this is that it acts as a very slow braking mechanism.”
Other factors such as warmer, denser winters caused by the El Nino climate cycle can also affect the time it takes for the Earth to go full circle.
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If leap seconds were not added, there would be a difference of up to three minutes by 2100 and a 30-minute difference by 2700.
Although the additional second does not seem to have much effect on an average person, it can be critically important for some digital systems that are used today such as telecommunication. In July 2012, a leap second caused problem on popular websites and social media sites such as Reddit, Instagram, Pinterest and Netflix. Time discrepancies could also affect systems beyond Earth.
"Think about Juno in orbit around Jupiter," Jean Dickey, from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has explained. "With all our antennas on Earth, an error in time means an error in Earth rotation, which would end up being a navigation error. It could really wreak havoc with the mission."
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