Electron cosmic ray measurements in space

Measurements of the electron and positron cosmic rays provide important information on the cosmic ray sources and on the mechanisms of their acceleration and propagation in the Galaxy. They are also major candidates for searching signals from annihilation of dark matter and contributions from other exotic sources as nearby pulsars. Many balloon-borne experiments have been performed since the sixties, but only recently by the PAMELA and Fermi satellite experiments have been possible to obtain reliable high statistics results up to 1 TeV that have highlighted interesting structures that have promoted a large number of theoretical ideas. AMS-02 ISS experiment is foreseen to release data on electrons and positrons in the next future.