In the present paper, we have studied the geo-effective characteristics of halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and examined their distribution over three kinds of geo-effective properties. To accomplish this study, we have selected the halo CMEs that were observed during the solar cycle 23, i.e. from 1996 to 2007. We selected three properties of CMEs viz. speed, acceleration and transit time and constructed several ranges of each type of property. From our analysis we have found that 60% of CMEs occur in the 500--1500~km~s$^{-1}$ category of CME speed. Similarly, 55% of CMEs are distributed over the range of 25--75 hours, of transit time while 60% of CMEs occur in the 0--20~m/s$^2$ category of positive acceleration and 78% of CMEs occur in the 0--20~m/s$^2$ category of negative acceleration. We also investigated the geomagnetic effects of the selected CMEs by considering the geomagnetic storms caused by them. The geomagnetic storms were divided into three categories on the basis of the peak $Dst$ value, as weak ($Dst >- 50$~nT), moderate ($-100$~nT~$< Dst \leq -50$~nT) and intense ($Dst < -100$~nT). The highest numbers of intense storms were registered in the intermediate ranges of CME properties. Moreover, it was also found that decelerating CMEs produced significantly larger number of intense storms. Hence, decelerating CMEs are more geo-effective than the accelerating CMEs.
Halo CMEs, geomagnetic storms, geo-effectiveness
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