Dynamics of the atmosphere and seismic activity in the Baikal rift zone

E study the troposphere dynamics, temperature regime in the stratosphere, upper atmosphere emission, and seismic activity in the Baikal Rift Zone for winters 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. Variations of the lithospheric, tropospheric, stratospheric and mesosphe- ric characteristics occurred either simultaneously or with a time lag during these periods. We found that the wind speed in the lower atmosphere reached a maximum several days before the seismic activity increase in the region. Then, it de-creased to a minimum at the earthquake instant. The periods of this seismic activity growth coincided with episodes of stratospheric warmings and with an increase in the 557.7 nm atmospheric emission in the meso-sphere and the low thermosphere (85-115 km). A pos-sible reason for the correlations may be the increased atmospheric effects on mountains, the formation of vertical flows above mountains, and generation of planetary and gravity waves.