Cosmic Ray Direct Measurements

Direct research on cosmic rays in the energy region between tens MeV/n and few TeV/n has been extensively undertaken by experiments on board stratospheric balloons, satellites, Space Stations, since the sixties. The main goals are the search for primordial antimatter, dark matter annihilation signals and exotic particles and the study of the mechanisms of production, acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays. The monitoring of the cosmic ray solar modulation, the detection of solar flares and studies on the radiation belts around the Earth complete the research program. A review of the major results up to an energy of few TeV obtained by the previous and the current experiments, mainly PAMELA and AMS-02, will be presented in this article.