Previous works have shown that water Cherenkov detectors have superior
sensitivity to those of scintillation counters as applied to detecting
extensive air showers (EAS). This is in large part due to their much higher
sensitivity to EAS photons which are more than five times more numerous than
EAS electrons. Large area water Cherenkov detectors can be constructed
relatively cheaply and operated reliably. A sparse detector array has been
designed which uses these types of detectors to substantially increase the area
over which the Milagro Gamma Ray Observatory collects EAS information.
Improvements to the Milagro detector's performance characteristics and
sensitivity derived from this array and preliminary results from a prototype
array currently installed near the Milagro detector will be presented.
