FITS keywords and the year 2000 problem

[William T.(Tom) Bridgman]

We've been examining a number of our FITS file generators and are 
concerned about possible Y2K problems in our archived FITS files.

The NOST standard seems to restrict the DATE and DATE-OBS keywords to 
dd/mm/yy format for generating human-readable dates.  We often utilize 
other date formats (yyyy.ddd and TJD) with mission-defined keywords 
which avoid this problem but we are still concerned.  

Naturally, we could also define additional keywords to produce 
alternative human-readable dates in dd/mm/yyyy format but we're 
wondering if there are plans to appropriately update the standards.

Thanks,
Tom
-- 
Tom Bridgman                             bridgman at grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center         301-286-1346
Code 660.1
Greenbelt, MD 20771