KASCADE extensive air shower experiment

The main aim of the KASCADE extensive air shower (EAS) experiment is the determination of the chemical composition of cosmic rays in the energy range around and above the knee at Ek ≈ 3 PeV. A large number of observables is measured simultaneously for each individual event, by the combination of various detection techniques for the electromagnetic, the muonic, and the hadronic component of the extensive air showers. Detailed investigations have been performed with the data measured by the KASCADE experiment since the start of data taking at the end of 1995. The results allow to evaluate hadronic interaction models, used in simulations to interpret air shower data. The all–particle spectrum of cosmic rays and their mass composition, as well as individual spectra for groups of elements have been reconstructed in the energy range between 10 and 10 eV. The results suggest, the knee in the all–particle cosmic–ray energy spectrum is caused by a rigidity–dependent cut–off of individual element groups. To improve the statistics around 10 eV, where the ”iron knee” in the cosmic ray spectrum is indicated in our data, the KASCADE experiment has recently been extended to KASCADE-Grande by a large collecting area (0.5 km) electromagnetic array, contributed from the former EAS-TOP experiment. The Grande part will cover the primary energy range 10 eV < E0 < 10 18 eV, overlapping with KASCADE around 10 eV, thus providing a continuous information from 3 · 10 eV to 10 eV. In addition, new technologies in detecting radio emission from cosmic ray air showers will be tested by an array of antennas (LOPES project) at the site of KASCADE.