The muon charge ratio in cosmic ray air showers

The muon charge ratio of the lateral muon density distributions in single EAS is studied by simulations, in context of recent proposals to measure this observable in coincidence with EAS observations. While effects of the hadronic interaction do not lead to significant differences of the total muon plus and muon minus content, the differences of the azimuthal variation of the muon densities of opposite charges and the azimuthal variation of the muon charge ratio appear to be very much pronounced, dependent on the direction of EAS incidence. This is due to the influence of the geomagnetic field which induces related effects in radio emission from extended air showers.