<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The stratopause is by definition the transition between the underlying stratosphere and the overlying mesosphere. While the circulation of the winter stratosphere is mainly driven by planetary waves, it is driven by gravity waves in the mesosphere. The aim of this study is to bring local stratopause variabilities in a global context and thus studying quantitatively the impact of quasi stationary planetary waves (PWs) on local measurements around the stratopause in

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... inter. Therefore we combine local lidar measurements with global MERRA-2 reanalysis data and analyze the effect of global PWs on different locations with the help of the new and simple concept of <q>local displacement</q>. This concepts includes the amplitude and changes in phase of PWs. Our results show that about 97&amp;thinsp;% of the local day-to-day variability of the stratopause can be explained by the variability of PWs with wavenumbers 1, 2 and 3. Thus locally measured effects which are not based on PW variability can be much better identified and thus investigated. This will help to improve our understanding of local phenomena.</p>