The PAMELA experiment and cosmic ray observations

Mori, N.; Adriani, O.; Barbarino, G. C.; Bazilevskaya, G. A.; Bellotti, R.; Boezio, M.; Bogomolov, E. A.; Bongi, M.; Bonvicini, V.; Bottai, S.; Bruno, A.; Cafagna, F.; Campana, D.; Carbone, R.; Carlson, P.; Casolino, M.; Castellini, G.; Danilchenko, I. A.; De Donato, C.; De Santis, C.; De Simone, N.; Di Felice, V.; Formato, V.; Galper, A. M.; Karelin, A. V.; Koldashov, S. V.; Koldobskiy, S. A.; Krutkov, S. Y.; Kvashnin, A. N.; Leonov, A. A.; Malakhov, V. V.; Marcelli, L.; Martucci, M.; Mayorov, A. G.; Menn, W.; Mergè, M.; Mikhailov, V. V.; Mocchiutti, E.; Monaco, A.; Munini, Riccardo; Osteria, G.; Palma, F.; Panico, B.; Papini, P.; Pearce, M.; Picozza, P.; Ricci, M.; Ricciarini, S. B.; Rosetto, M. L.; Sarkar, R.; Simon, V. M.; Sparvoli,; Stozhkov, Y. I.; Vacchi, P.; Vannuccini, E.; Vasil’Ev, G. I.; Voronov, S. A.; Yurkin, Y. T.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Zverev, V. G.

doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2015.06.062

Abstract The \PAMELA\ space experiment is aimed at precise measurements of the charged light component of the cosmic ray spectrum in the energy range spanning from the sub-GeV region to the TeV region, with a particular focus on antimatter. The instrument consists of a magnetic spectrometer, an electromagnetic sampling calorimeter,a time-of-flight system, an anticoincidence shield, a tail-catcher scintillator and a neutron detector. Launched in June 2006 and hosted on the Resurs-DK1 satellite, \PAMELA\ has been taking data for more than eight years, providing scientific results with unprecedented statistics and a continuous monitoring of the sun activity and the heliosphere.