The mean tropical year in 2000 was 365.24219 ephemeris days, each ephemeris day lasting 86,400 SI seconds. This is 365.24217 mean solar days. For this reason, the calendar year is an approximation of the solar year: the Gregorian calendar (with its rules for catch-up leap days) is designed so as to resynchronise the calendar year with the solar year at regular intervals.
