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A fundamental property of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) is their radial expansion, which determines the increase in the CME radial size and the decrease in the CME magnetic field strength as the CME propagates. CME radial expansion can be investigated either by using remote observations or by in situ measurements based on multiple spacecraft in radial conjunction. However, there have been only few case studies combining both remote and in situ observations. It is therefore unknown if the radial expansion in the corona estimated remotely is consistent with that estimated locally in the heliosphere. To address this question, we first select 22 CME events between the years 2010 and 2013, which were well observed by coronagraphs and by two or three spacecraft in radial conjunction. We use the graduated cylindrical shell model to estimate the radial size, radial expansion speed, and a measure of the dimensionless expansion parameter of CMEs in the corona. The same parameters and two additional measures of the radial-size increase and magnetic-field-strength decrease with heliocentric distance of CMEs based on in situ measurements are also calculated. For most of the events, the CME radial size estimated by remote observations is inconsistent with the in situ estimates. We further statistically analyze the correlations of these expansion parameters estimated using remote and in situ observations, and discuss the potential reasons for the inconsistencies and their implications for the CME space weather forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interplanetary magnetic flux ropes with durations from a few minutes to a few hours have been termed small flux ropes (SFRs). We have built a comprehensive catalog of SFRs at Mercury using magnetometer data from the orbital phase of the MESSENGER mission (2011–2015). In the absence of solar wind plasma measurements, we developed strict identification criteria for SFRs in the magnetometer observations, including force-free field fits for each flux rope. We identified a total of 48 events that met our strict criteria, with events ranging in duration from 2.5 minutes to 4 hr. Using superposed epoch analysis, we obtained the generic SFR magnetic field profile at Mercury. Due to its eccentric orbit, Mercury's heliospheric distance varies between 0.31 and 0.47 au, a range of ∼0.16 au. This distance is potentially large enough for the SFRs to undergo measurable changes due to distance. Thus, we split the data into two distance bins to look for such changes. We found that the average SFR profile is more symmetric farther from the Sun, in line with the idea that SFRs form closer to the Sun and undergo a relaxation process in the solar wind. Based on this result, as well as the SFR durations and the magnetic field strength fall-off with heliocentric distance, we infer that the SFRs observed at Mercury are expanding as they propagate with the solar wind. We also determined that the SFR occurrence frequency is nearly four times as high at Mercury as for similarly detected events at 1 au. Most interestingly, we found two SFR populations in our data set, one likely generated in a quasi-periodic formation process near the heliospheric current sheet, and the other formed away from the current sheet in isolated events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]