Short-time variability of the atmospheric tides is frequently observed in the meteor region but is not yet fully explained in terms of production mechanisms. This is probably due to the existence of several such mechanisms acting together or separately. In this paper we show that many observations can be explained by nonlinear interactions between tides and planetary waves having periods corresponding to those observed tidal amplitude modulations. These nonlinear interactions generate two secondary waves whose frequencies are the sum and difference of frequencies of the primary waves. These two waves beat with the tide, modulating its amplitude with the planetary wave period. A numerical model is used to demonstrate that with primary waves of reasonable amplitudes the nonlinear interactions can be quite large. This is because the importance of nonlinearity depends essentially on the amplitude of the induced fluid velocity in the direction of wave propagation compared to the wave propagation velocity. When two waves propagate simultaneously, the fluid velocity can have an large component in the direction of propagtion of one of the waves, and advective (nonlinear) terms can be large. This point is further illustrated in the case of two gravity waves interacting together. Finally, some observational campaigns carried out above Garchy (45¿N) are analyzed using a nonparametric method. The results indicate that nonlinear interactions between tides and planetary waves really take place in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere. ¿American Geophysical Union 1991