Jim Carrigan Observatory is located at T-Pad, a man-made raised gravel bed close to the drilling sites at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The observatory huts are raised from the tundra on four piles, set into the permafrost with sand and water, to prevent drifting snow from banking against the hut sides.
This is the fourth overseas geomagnetic observatory to be established by BGS. The installation was undertaken on behalf of Sperry Drilling Services (SDS), in support of directional drilling programmes. SDS has operated a prototype station since 1997 and building on its success a high-resolution observatory was installed by BGS in October 2003.
Statistics
Geographic Coordinates:
| 70.356° N | 211.201° E |
Geomagnetic Coordinates:
| 70.272° N | 255.524° E |
Elevation:
20m above mean sea level
Geomagnetic Coordinates were computed using the 11th Generation IGRF, Epoch 2011.5