Influence of soil environment on performance of EAS electron–neutron detector array

The new type of EAS array consisting of EN-detectors possesses the ability to discriminate the composition of cosmic rays. At the Yangbajing Cosmic Ray Observatory, the PRISMA-16-YBJ array has been running for three years. We installed 16 so-called “sand cubes” with one cubic meter size, and compared the data obtained by placing PRISMA-16-YBJ on and away from the sand cubes to study the influence of target material, which is a major environmental factor, on the performance of the array.