33ND INTERNATIONAL COSMIC RAY CONFERENCE, RIO DE JANEIRO 2013 THE ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS CONFERENCE

Its main task is investigation of the high-energy cosmic rays including electrons, protons, and nuclei as well as positrons and antiprotons. PAMELA is valuable for measurements of solar energetic particles (SEPs) since it is the only instrument recording protons and nuclei within the energy range from about 100 MeV/n to several GeV/n. Such an interval could earlier be covered only by several different types of detectors including the ground-level ones. PAMELA was lucky to observe the last powerful SEP events of the 23rd solar cycle in December of 2006. To date PAMELA has observed at least 10 events with E> 100 MeV protons. This paper reviews the particle fluxes, energy spectra and intensity-time profiles of SEP events recorded by PAMELA with the aim to compare them with the results of other observations, namely neutron monitors, balloons, and spacecrafts