Distribution and temporal variability of 500 hPa cyclone characteristics in the Southern Hemisphere

A 40 year period (1958–97) of US National Centers for Environmental Prediction reanalysis data has been used to diagnose the behaviour and variability of 500 hPa extratropical cyclones for the Southern Hemisphere using a Lagrangian perspective. The ‘finding’ and ‘tracking’ of these systems were performed using a fully automated scheme. Seasonal distributions of system density, cyclone formation (cyclogenesis), decay (cyclolysis), cyclone centre velocity and intensity/strength are presented. System density is shown to exhibit a maximum in the surface circumpolar trough region and over the Antarctic continent. A broad band of enhanced cyclone system density was evident across the South Pacific from southeast Australia to South America in all seasons, most markedly in winter. As this feature appears also at the surface level, strong vertical consistency of these cyclones in the low and middle troposphere is indicated. Velocities of cyclone centres were found to peak in the latitudes 50–55 °S, and 500 hPa systems appeared to move on average in a much more zonal (easterly) direction than their sea‐level counterparts. The mean number of midlatitude cyclones per analysis has exhibited a significant downward trend over the record, with particularly low values observed in the early 1980s. Offsetting this trend have been increases in three measures of mean cyclone vigour. Three orographic features, in particular, are seen to influence the behaviour of 500 hPa cyclones: the mountains of New Zealand, the Antarctic Peninsula and the southern Andes. Over most of Antarctica the rate of cyclogenesis exceeds that of cyclolysis, indicating that many of the cyclones being formed in the vortex are actually exported out (i.e. to the north) of the continent. In the subtropics, considerable numbers of systems are formed in the Mozambique Sea region, but these tend to be quasi‐stationary features.