Comment on "Sizes and relative geoeffectiveness of interplanetary coronal mass ejections and the preceding shock sheaths during intense storms in 1996-2005" by J. Zhang et al

TL;DR

This paper critically discusses Zhang et al.'s 2008 statistical analysis of interplanetary coronal mass ejections and shock sheaths, focusing on their sizes and geoeffectiveness during intense geomagnetic storms from 1996 to 2005.

Contribution

It provides a commentary on previous findings, highlighting potential issues and alternative interpretations of the data and conclusions.

Findings

Questions the original interpretation of sheath sizes and geoeffectiveness

Suggests alternative factors influencing geomagnetic storm intensity

Highlights the need for further detailed analysis of ICME properties

Abstract

Recently Zhang et al. [2008] presented a statistical study of sizes and relative geoeffectiveness of ICMEs (bodies of magnetic clouds) and preceding sheaths for 46 events responsible for intense (Dst < -100 nT) geomagnetic storms in 1996-2005 in which only a single ICME was responsible for generating the storm. Here we would like to comment several results and conclusions of this paper.