The gas giants with their complex differentiated interiors, diverse neutral atmospheres and ionospheres, their highly variable ring systems and variety of moons and their huge magnetospheres, represent fascinating systems to study. Each of the Giant Planet systems are small worlds with distinct neutral and charged particle environments corotating around the planet, interacting with the rings and moons via tidal forcing and electrodynamical interactions. The configuration and the dynamics of those systems on a global and local scale are very complex and only partially understood. The thick Giant Planet atmospheres host complex chemical laboratories under the influence of vigorous dynamics and are partly driven by their interaction with the magnetospheres and space environment. Over the past decades these systems have been explored in-situ by spacecraft during flybys and in orbit, remotely by ground- and Earth-orbit based observations, with theory and model studies helping to better understand the processes involved.

This session encompasses observations, theories and modeling of physical processes in giant planet systems and the interactions with the environments. It also addresses the coupling processes between the magnetospheres and atmospheres/ionospheres, exospheres, and the solar wind.

Contributions discussing important scientific targets, analytical techniques and numerical simulation with relevance to the upcoming Europa-Jupiter System Mission are particularly welcome.