The instrument PAMELA, in orbit since June 15th, 2006 on board of the Russian satellite Resurs DK1, is delivering to ground 16 Gigabytes of data every day. The apparatus is designed to study charged particles in the cosmic radiation,
with a particular focus on antimatter and signals of dark matter annihilation. A combination of a magnetic spectrometer and different detectors allows antiparticles
to be reliably identified from a large background of other charged particles. After 4 years of operation in flight, PAMELA is now delivering coherent results about spectra and chemical composition of the charged cosmic radiation, allowing scenarios of production and propagation of cosmic rays to be fully established and understood
