PAMELA has been orbiting the Earth for more than six years, gathering data on solar, galactic and trapped cosmic rays during the time of the last solar minimum. The apparatus comprises a time-of-flight system, a silicon-microstrip magnetic spectrometer, a silicon-tungsten electromagnetic calorimeter, an anticoincidence system, a shower tail catcher scintillator and a neutron detector. The combination of these devices allows charged particle and antiparticle identification over a wide energy range and with an unprecedented precision. The quasi-polar orbit of the instrument, with an inclination of 70 degrees, makes it possible to measure low energy particles starting from about 100 MeV/n. In this work we present the time and rigidity dependence of the galactic proton and helium fluxes over the first 4 years of operation during the A < 0 solar minimum of solar cycle 23.
