If I had to guess, I would say that Earth's magnetic field is used in directional drilling to tell which way your drill head is going and that the solar storm distorts Earth's magnetic field.
Wonder why they don't use gyros. Too much vibration?
They might be - this was only an attempt to make sense of the first comment in the context of this submission.
It's a reference to the "Armageddon" movie from 1998 when a bunch of oil rig drillers get recruited into being astronauts for plot reasons. It was a decent enough movie but nothing you need to look up unless you have an unhealthy obsession for Arwen from Lord Of The Rings.
I always felt that Armageddon occupied this uncanny valley of Hollywood cheese. Too much to suspend disbelief, not enough to be making fun of itself. Always loved "The Core" for being the same sort of film but falling into the second camp.
Don’t forget Deep Impact, sort of a summer companion blockbuster, but which “astronomers said was more accurate”, could feed your Hobbit obsessions, and NASA went on to name a space probe after it!
Negative - when directional drilling a well, a magnetic storm can actually cause you to lose signal and halt the entire drilling process. It's kind of a running joke when you work as a Drilling Engineer and the Directional Driller says they can't confirm their coordinates due to magnetic storms.
It's kind of a running joke when you work as a Drilling Engineer and the Directional Driller says they can't confirm their coordinates due to magnetic storms.