An objective routine for identifying individual cyclones has been developed. The procedure was designed with the aim to keep the input expenditure low. The method ensures a complete collection of cyclones and an exclusion of short time fluctuations attributed to numerical effects. The cyclones are identified as relative minima of the geopotential height field in 1000 hPa. The initial stages of the cyclones are found by locating relative maxima in the 850-hPa vorticity field. Further on the temporal development of the extrema is taken into consideration. An individual cyclone is regarded only if it exists for at least 24 h and if it attains a mature stage at least once, where a certain margin of the geopotential gradient to the surroundings is exceeded.
The identification routine is applied to simulations with the Hamburg general circulation model ECHAM in T21 resolution. Also, cyclone tracks based on ECMWF analyses are evaluated, to which the model results are compared. The effect of different climate conditions, for example, global warning, on cyclone frequency and track location is investigated. It is found that a warmer SST distribution leads to a slight reduction of cyclone frequency in the Southern Hemisphere in tall (March, April, May) and winter (June, July, August); elsewhere the differences are not significant.