Abstract
The magnetometer of the InSight mission operated on the martian surface
from November 2018 until May 2022. Previously, satellites have provided
information on the martian magnetic field environment from orbit,
however, the degree to which external fields penetrate to and interact
with the surface could not be studied prior to the InSight landing.
Here, we present an overview of the complete surface magnetic field data
from InSight sols 14 to 1241 that display different external magnetic
field phenomena, transient and periodic. Periodic observations range
from short period waves (100s-1000s of seconds), diurnal variations,
~26 sol Carrington rotations, to seasonal fluctuations.
Transient events are observed in response to space weather and dust
movement. We find that ionospheric variations are the dominant
contribution as seen from the surface, while contributions from the
undisturbed IMF are more subtle. We discuss limitations associated with
a single point measurement and opportunities that future missions could
enable. Including magnetometers on future missions at a variety of
locations for long-duration continuous observations will be of great
value in understanding a range of external field phenomena and will
enable further investigations in different crustal magnetic field
settings.