The need for professional-amateur collaboration in studies of Jupiter and Saturn

The observation of the gaseous giant planets is of high scientific interest. Although they have been the targets of several spacecraft missions, there still remains a need for continuous ground-based observations. As their atmospheres present fast dynamic environments on varied timescales, the availability of time at professional telescopes is neither uniform nor of sufficient duration to assess temporal changes. On the other hand, numerous amateurs with small telescopes (with typical apertures of 15-40cm) and modern hardware and software equipment can monitor these changes daily (within the 360-900nm wavelength range). Amateur observers are able to trace the structure and the evolution of atmospheric features, such as major planetary-scale disturbances, vortices, and storms. Their observations provide a continuous record and it is not uncommon to trigger professional observations in cases of important events, such as sudden onset of global changes, storms and celestial impacts.