  Mass is one of the most fundamental parameters characterizing the dynamics of
a coronal mass ejection (CME). It has been found that CME apparent mass
measured from the brightness enhancement in coronagraph images shows an
increasing trend during its evolution in the corona. However, the physics
behind it is not clear. Does the apparent mass gain come from the mass outflow
from the dimming regions in the low corona, or from the pileup of the solar
wind plasma around the CME when it propagates outwards from the Sun? We
analyzed the mass evolution of six CME events. Their mass can increase by a
factor of 1.6 to 3.2 from 4 to 15 Rs in the field of view (FOV) of the
coronagraph on board the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). Over
the distance about 7 to 15 Rs, where the coronagraph occulting effect can be
negligible, the mass can increase by a factor of 1.3 to 1.7. We adopted the
`snow-plough' model to calculate the mass contribution of the piled-up solar
wind in the height range from about 7 to 15 Rs. For 2/3 of the events, the
solar wind pileup is not sufficient to explain the measured mass increase. In
the height range from about 7 to 15 Rs, the ratio of the modeled to the
measured mass increase is roughly larger than 0.55. Although the ratios are
believed to be overestimated, the result gives evidence that the solar wind
pileup probably makes a non-negligible contribution to the mass increase. It is
not clear yet whether the solar wind pileup is a major contributor to the final
mass derived from coronagraph observations. However, our study suggests that
the solar wind pileup plays increasingly important role in the mass increase as
a CME moves further away from the Sun.
