Cosmic Rays in the PeV Energy Range: KASCADE-Grande

Recent results from the multi-detector set-up KASCADE on measurements of cosmic rays in the energy range of the so called knee (at 3 PeV) are presented. The multidimensional analysis of the air shower data indicates a distinct knee in the energy spectra of light primary cosmic rays and an increasing dominance of heavy ones towards higher energies. This provides, together with the results of large scale anisotropy studies, implications for discriminating astrophysical models of the origin of the knee. To improve the reconstruction quality and statistics at higher energies, where knee-like features of the heavy primaries are expected at around 100 PeV, KASCADE has recently been extended by a factor 10 in area to the new experiment KASCADE-Grande. 1