Monday

The outer planet orbiters (Galileo, Juno and Cassini) have greatly advanced our understanding of how the radiation belts of Jupiter and Saturn are structured. For a long time, however, relevant investigations ignored the aspect of radiation dynamics, citing the lack of solar wind monitoring and the limitations associated with single point spacecraft measurements. The extended, 13-year stay of Cassini at Saturn, which involved more than 200 crossings through the planet's radiation belts, allowed us to develop ways to overcome such obstacles and to gain valuable insights into the proton and electron belt variability time scales. In several cases, these insights have been decisive for identifying the dominant processes that form and sustain these energetic systems. In this presentation I will introduce Saturn's radiation belts and describe key aspects of their time variability, their interpretation and importance for understanding an even more complex system: Jupiter's radiation belts.