THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THE INSIGHT FLUX GATE MAGNETOMETER (IFG) ON THE AUXILIARY PAYLOAD SENSOR SUITE (APSS) IS TO MEASURE THE LOCAL MAGNETIC FIELD IN ORDER TO REMOVE THE EFFECTS OF MAGNETIC FIELDS ON THE SEISMIC EXPERIMENT FOR INTERIOR STRUCTURE (SEIS) RECORDINGS. OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE IS TO USE THESE AMBIENT MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS TO INVESTIGATE THE VARIABILITY OF CURRENTS IN THE IONOSPHERE OF MARS. SOLAR HEATING DRIVES ATMOSPHERIC MOTION. HIGH ALTITUDE THERMOSPHERIC WINDS CAN DRIVE PLASMA ACROSS DRAPED MAGNETIC FIELD LINES FROM THE INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELD (IMF) ENTRAINED IN THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE AND IONOSPHERE. AT ALTITUDES WHERE THE IONS ARE COLLISIONALLY COUPLED TO THE NEUTRAL ATMOSPHERE WHILE ELECTRON MOTION IS DOMINATED BY MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECTS - THE IONOSPHERIC DYNAMO REGION - CURRENTS ARE GENERATED. AT MARS THE IONOSPHERIC DYNAMO REGION IS TYPICALLY BETWEEN 120 AND 200 KM. AS SOLAR FORCING AND ATMOSPHERIC TIDAL WINDS OVER THE LANDING SITE CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF A DAY AND A YEAR SO WILL THE IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS. LIKEWISE TRANSIENT SOLAR EVENTS SUCH AS SOLAR FLARES CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS (CMES) AND STREAM INTERACTION REGIONS (SIRS) WILL MODIFY THE IONOSPHERE AND AS A RESULT IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS. THE OCCURRENCE OF THESE TRANSIENT EVENTS ARE TYPICALLY TIED TO THE 27-DAY SOLAR ROTATION PERIOD. 0UR GOALS ARE TO DETERMINE THE TYPICAL DIURNAL AND SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN THE IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS AS WELL AS THE IMPULSIVE RESPONSES OF THE IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS TO TRANSIENT SOLAR EVENTS SUCH AS SOLAR FLARES CMES AND SIRS. CURRENTS FLOWING IN THE IONOSPHERE OF MARS CREATE MAGNETIC FIELDS WHICH CAN BE MEASURED ON THE SURFACE. ANALOGOUS TO WHAT IS DONE AT EARTH VARIATIONS IN THE MEASURED MAGNETIC FIELD ON THE SURFACE WILL BE USED TO INFER VARIATIONS IN THE CURRENTS IN THE IONOSPHERE. INITIALLY THE PROPOSED WORK WILL CONSIST OF AIDING THE IFG TEAM IN CHARACTERIZING THE LANDER MAGNETIC FIELD SOURCES IN ORDER TO REMOVE THEM FROM THE DATA FOR OUR ANALYSIS. HOWEVER EVEN IN THE ABSENCE OF THE COMPLETE REMOVAL OF THE LANDER FIELDS PERIODIC VARIATIONS (1-DAY AND 27-DAY) SHOULD STILL BE EXTRACTABLE. WE WILL USE FOURIER ANALYSIS TO FIND TYPICAL PERIODS OF VARIATION (EXPECTED TO BE 1-DAY AND 27-DAY PERIODICITIES) AND SUPERPOSED EPOCH ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE THE TYPICAL VARIATIONS AS WELL AS DEVIATIONS FROM THE TYPICAL. USING PUBLICLY AVAILABLE CRUSTAL MAGNETIC FIELD MODELS AND PUBLICLY AVAILABLE THERMOSPHERE AND IONOSPHERE MODELS WE WILL ATTEMPT TO CONSTRAIN THE SOURCES ORIENTATIONS AND MAGNITUDES OF THE IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS. THE PROPOSED INVESTIGATION WILL ENHANCE AND EXPAND ON THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN OF THE INSIGHT MISSION. AT PRESENT THERE HAVE BEEN NO MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENTS FROM THE SURFACE OF MARS. ASIDE FROM A FEW MODELING EFFORTS VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS AT MARS. INSIGHT IFG MEASUREMENTS AND THEIR ANALYSIS WILL GREATLY INCREASE OUR KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF IONOSPHERIC ELECTRODYNAMICS ON (PREDOMINANTLY) UNMAGNETIZED TERRESTRIAL-TYPE PLANETS. THIS INVESTIGATION ALSO ADDRESSES ONE OF THE "SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS" LISTED IN THE INSIGHT PSP SOLICITATION. SPECIAL INVESTIGATION 4 RELATES TO ENHANCED SCIENCE RETURN FROM IFG. BY MEASURING TIME VARYING MAGNETIC FIELDS ON THE SURFACE THIS INVESTIGATION WILL CONTRIBUTE TO OUR UNDERSTANDING OF IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS AND THEIR VARIABILITY DRIVEN BY INTERACTIONS WITH THE SUN AND THE SOLAR WIND. THIS WORK WILL APPLY TO TWO INSIGHT SCIENCE THEME GROUPS (STGS). IT APPLIES MOST DIRECTLY TO THE ATMOSPHERE THEME GROUP BY IDENTIFYING ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA (IONOSPHERIC CURRENTS) AND BY INVESTIGATING THE VARIABILITY IN THE ATMOSPHERIC RESPONSE TO SOLAR FORCING. PERIPHERALLY THE PROPOSED WORK ALSO APPLIES TO THE CRUST THEME GROUP IN THAT THE AMBIENT MAGNETIC FIELD WILL BE COMPARED TO CRUSTAL AND GLOBAL MAGNETIC FIELD MODELS IN AN ATTEMPT TO INFER MAGNETIC TOPOLOGY AND IONOSPHERE CURRENT CONFIGURATION.