The KASCADE Collaboration

KASCADE (KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector) is a multi-detector setup to observe the electromagnetic, muonic and hadronic air shower components simultaneously in the energy region around the “knee ” of the primary spectrum. Its main aim is to determine energy spectrum and composition of hadrons in primary cosmic rays. This is attempted by registring a large number of observables for each EAS including measurements of electrons, muons and hadrons. This contribution gives a short description of the experiment and then presents some results on the lateral distributions of various particle types and on the spectrum of hadrons. The status of our analyses to determine mass composition is presented in an accompanying contribution by A. Haungs. 1

www.elsevier.tiocate/npe Towards the Energy Spectrum and Composition of Primary Cosmic Rays in the Knee Region: Methods and Results at KASCADE

KASCADE (KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector) is a multi-detector setup to observe the electro-magnetic, muonic and hadronic air shower components simultaneously at primary energies in the region of the “knee”. A large number of observables per single shower are registered. The main aims of the experiment are the determination of the primary energy spectrum around the “knee ” and the energy variation of the chemical composition. The measurements reveal an increasing mean mass of the primary cosmic rays above the observed kink, and a sharper knee for the light primary component than for the all-particle spectrum, and the absence of a knee for the heavy component between 1 and 10 PeV. 1