  Using a renormalization group motivated smoothing technique, we investigate
the large scale structure of lattice configurations at finite temperature,
concentrating on Abelian monopoles identified in the maximally Abelian, the
Laplacian Abelian, and the Polyakov gauge. Monopoles are mostly found in
regions of large action and topological charge, rather independent of the gauge
chosen to detect them. Gauge invariant properties around Abelian monopoles, the
local non-Abelian action and topological density, are studied. We show that the
local averages of these densities along the monopole trajectories are clearly
above the background, which supports the existence of monopoles as physical
objects. Characteristic changes of the vacuum structure at the deconfinement
transition can be attributed to the corresponding Abelian monopoles, to an
extent that depends on the gauge chosen for Abelian projection. All three
Abelian projections reproduce the full SU(2) string tension within 10 percent
which is preserved by smoothing.
