PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics) was a cosmic ray research module attached to an Earth orbiting satellite.

PAMELA was launched on 15 June 2006 and was the first satellite-based experiment dedicated to the detection of cosmic rays, with a particular focus on their antimatter component, in the form of positrons and antiprotons.

[3][4] PAMELA was the largest device up to the time built by the Wizard collaboration, which includes Russia, Italy, Germany and Sweden and has been involved in many satellite and balloon-based cosmic ray experiments such as Fermi-GLAST.

The apparatus is 1.3 m high, has a total mass of 470 kg and a power consumption of 335 W. The instrument is built around a permanent magnet spectrometer with a silicon microstrip tracker that provides rigidity and dE/dx information.

An anticounter system made of scintillators surrounding the apparatus is used to reject false triggers and albedo particles during off-line analysis.

A paper, published on 15 July 2011, confirmed earlier speculation that the Van Allen belt could confine a significant flux of antiprotons produced by the interaction of the Earth's upper atmosphere with cosmic rays.

[12][13] Boron and carbon flux measurements were published in July 2014,[14] important to explaining trends in cosmic ray positron fraction.

The PAMELA team has invoked this effect to explain the discrepancy between their low energy results and those obtained by CAPRICE, HEAT and AMS-01, which were collected during that half of the cycle when the solar magnetic field had the opposite polarity.