This animation is part of a paper Influence of the spatial distribution of gravity wave activity on the middle atmospheric circulation and transport, which is under review to Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Journal. Analyzing GPS radio occultation density profiles, we have recently pointed out a localized area of enhanced gravity wave (GW) activity and breaking in the lower stratosphere of the Eastern Asia/North-western Pacific (EA/NP) region. With a mechanistic model of the middle and upper atmosphere experiments are performed to study a possible effect of such a localized GW breaking region on the large-scale circulation and transport and, more generally, a possible influence of the spatial distribution of gravity wave activity on the middle atmospheric circulation and transport. The results indicate an important role of the spatial distribution of GW activity for the polar vortex stability, formation of planetary waves (PW) and for the strength and structure of the zonal mean residual circulation. Also, a possible effect of a zonally asymmetric GW breaking in the longitudinal variability of the Brewer-Dobson circulation is analyzed. Finally, consequences of our results for a variety of research topics (sudden stratospheric warmings, atmospheric blocking, teleconnections and a compensation mechanism between resolved and unresolved drag) are discussed.