The PAMELA experiment and cosmic ray observations

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.