How Can We Visualize El Nino/La Nina Teleconnections?

How does the 'atmosphere' over the US and other parts of the world 'know' what's going on over the equatorial Pacific during El Nino/La Nina?   Typically El Nino is presented visually as the warm ocean surface temperature anomaly, sometimes extending to the Peruvian coast.  However the atmospheric 'action' is really thousands of miles to the west, and way above the ocean.  Are there ways teachers can help students visualize what is truly an amazing earth-systems partner dance between the ocean, the atmosphere, and gravity?  NASA Goddard SVS, NASA-JPL, and Jason satellite visualizations will be shown.