First results of the air shower experiment KASCADE

Abstract The main golas of the KASCADE (KArlsruhe Shower Core and Array DEtector) experiment are the determination of the energy spectrum and elemental composition of the charged cosmic rays in the energy range around the knee at ≈ 5 PeV. Due to the large number of measured observables per single shower a variety of different approaches are applied to the data, preferably on an event-by-event basis. First results are presented and the influence of the high-energy interaction models underlying the analyses is discussed.