A direct comparison between two independently calibrated time transfer techniques: T2L2 and GPS common-views

We present a direct comparison between two satellite time transfer techniques on independently calibrated links: Time Transfer by Laser Link (T2L2) and Common-Views (CV) of satellites from the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation. The GPS CV and T2L2 links between three European laboratories where independently calibrated against the same reference point of the local timescales. For all the links the mean values of the differences between GPS CV and T2L2 are equal or below 240 ps, with standard deviations below 500 ps, mostly due to GPS CV. Almost all deviations from 0 ns are within the combined uncertainty estimates. Despite the weak number of common points obtained, due to the fact that T2L2 is weather dependent, these results are providing an unprecedented sub-ns consistency between two independently calibrated microwave and optical satellite time transfer techniques.