Launch of the Space experiment PAMELA

Abstract

PAMELA is a satellite borne experiment designed to study with great accuracy cosmic rays of galactic, solar, and trapped nature in a wide energy range protons: 80 MeV-700 GeV, electrons 50 MeV-400 GeV). Main objective is the study of the antimatter component: antiprotons (80 MeV-190 GeV), positrons (50 MeV-270 GeV) and search for antimatter with a precision of the order of 10^-8). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, 15, 2006 in a 350*600 km orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. The detector is composed of a series of scintillator counters arranged at the extremities of a permanent magnet spectrometer to provide charge, Time-of-Flight and rigidity information. Lepton/hadron identification is performed by a Silicon-Tungsten calorimeter and a Neutron detector placed at the bottom of the device. An Anticounter system is used offline to reject false triggers coming from the satellite. In self-trigger mode the Calorimeter, the neutron detector and a shower tail catcher are capable of an independent measure of the lepton component up to 2 TeV. In this work we describe the experiment, its scientific objectives and the performance in the first months after launch.

Accepted for publication on Advances in Space Research

References in corpus (23)

• Production and propagation of cosmic-ray positrons and electrons
• Measurements of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Fraction From 1 to 50 GeV
• PAMELA - A Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics
• Antiprotons in cosmic rays from neutralino annihilation
• Positron Propagation and Fluxes from Neutralino Annihilation in the Halo
• Precision Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Spectrum
• New Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Fraction from 5 to 15 GeV
• Measurement of D+- and D0 production in deep inelastic scattering using a lifetime tag at HERA
• The Cosmic-Ray antiproton flux between 3 and 49 GeV
• Measurements of Cosmic-ray Low-energy Antiproton and Proton Spectra in a Transient Period of the Solar Field Reversal
• Cosmic antiprotons as a probe for supersymmetric dark matter?
• Heavy Wino-like Neutralino Dark Matter Annihilation into Antiparticles
• The Energy Spectra and Relative Abundances of Electrons and Positrons in the Galactic Cosmic Radiation
• Searching for Dark Matter with Future Cosmic Positron Experiments
• Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter and the Positron Excess
• Cosmic-Ray Positrons: Are There Primary Sources?
• The Role of Antimatter Searches in the Hunt for Supersymmetric Dark Matter
• A High Granularity Imaging Calorimeter for Cosmic-Ray Physics
• Cosmic Positron Signature from Dark Matter in the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity
• Uncertainties of Cosmic Ray Spectra and Detectability of Antiproton mSUGRA Contributions With PAMELA
• In-Orbit Performance of the Space Telescope NINA and GCR Flux Measurements
• Implications of a New Solar System Population of Neutralinos on Indirect Detection Rates
• Cosmic antiprotons as a probe for neutralino dark matter?

Cited by in corpus (15)

• PAMELA Measurements of Cosmic-ray Proton and Helium Spectra
• TeV Gamma Rays from Geminga and the Origin of the GeV Positron Excess
• Propagation of Cosmic Rays in Heliosphere: the HelMod Model
• A Markov Chain Monte Carlo for Galactic Cosmic Ray physics: I. Method and results for the Leaky Box Model
• Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices I (ASTROD I) - A class-M fundamental physics mission proposal for Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: 2010 Update
• Astrodynamical Space Test of Relativity using Optical Devices I (ASTROD I) - A class-M fundamental physics mission proposal for Cosmic Vision 2015-2025
• Phenomenological study of light (anti)nuclei, (anti)hypertriton and di-Lambda production at RHIC
• A brief review of antimatter production
• Antimatter cosmic rays from dark matter annihilation: First results from an N-body experiment
• Two years of flight of the Pamela experiment: results and perspectives
• Simulations of systematic effects arising from cosmic rays in the LiteBIRD space telescope, and effects on the measurements of CMB $B$-modes
• Energy sensitivity of the GRAPES-3 EAS array for primary cosmic ray protons
• Detection of the high energy component of Jovian electrons in Low Earth Orbit with the PAMELA experiment
• Antimatter and Gamma-rays from Dark Matter Annihilation
• An Interpretation of the Cosmic Ray $e^{+}+e^{-}$ Spectrum from 10 GeV to 3 TeV Measured by CALET on the ISS