Propagation characteristics of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the corona and interplanetary space

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) play an important role in space weather. The propagation characteristics of CMEs in the Corona and interplanetary space determine whether, when and how the CME will hit the Earth. To this end, a lot of progress has been made both on observational and numerical studies of CMEs. With the development of the advanced observational, theoretical and numerical methods, there emerges more and more research on the morphology, the kinematic evolution, the prediction of the arrival at 1 AU and the acceleration/deceleration processes of CMEs. Moreover, many direct observations and simulations have revealed that the CMEs may not propagate along a straight trajectory both in the corona and interplanetary space. Both observational and numerical studies have shown that, when two or more CMEs collide with each other, their kinematic characteristics may change significantly. Here, we present a review of the recent progress associated with the different aspects of CMEs, including their interplanetary counterparts ICMEs, especially focusing on the initiation of the CME, the CMEs' propagation characteristics, interaction with the background solar wind structures, the deflection of the CMEs, the interaction between successive CMEs, the particle acceleration associated with successive CMEs' interaction, and the effect of compound events on Earth's magnetosphere.