Two years of flight of the Pamela experiment: results and perspectives

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 antinuclei with a precision of the order of $10^{-8}$). The experiment, housed on board the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite, was launched on June, $15^{th}$ 2006 in a $350\times 600km$ orbit with an inclination of 70 degrees. In this work we describe the scientific objectives and the performance of PAMELA in its first two years of operation. Data on protons of trapped, secondary and galactic nature - as well as measurements of the December $13^{th}$ 2006 Solar Particle Event - are also provided.

To appear on J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. as part of the proceedings of the International Workshop on Advances in Cosmic Ray Science March, 17-19, 2008 Waseda University, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

References in corpus (7)

• PAMELA - A Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics
• A New calculation of the atmospheric neutrino flux in a 3-dimensional scheme
• Measurements of 0.2 to 20 GeV/n cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from 1997 through 2002 with the BESS spectrometer
• Interaction between a fast rotating sunspot and ephemeral regions as the origin of the major solar event on 2006 December 13
• Launch of the Space experiment PAMELA
• Study of cosmic ray interaction model based on atmospheric muons for the neutrino flux calculation
• In-Orbit Performance of the Space Telescope NINA and GCR Flux Measurements

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Observations of the December 13 and 14, 2006, Solar Particle Events in the 80 MeV/n - 3 GeV/n range from space with PAMELA detector
• The 2015 Summer Solstice Storm: one of the major geomagnetic storms of solar cycle 24 observed at ground level
• Simulation of the cosmic ray effects for the LiteBIRD satellite observing the CMB B-mode polarization