Can an Interactive Ocean Impact the Indian Ocean-NAO teleconnection?

We use the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to observe the teleconnection between the sea surface temperature (SST) of the Indian Ocean and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In this work, we compare results based on simulations using a fixed SST patch in the Indian Ocean with simulations using a slab-ocean model (SOM) within the CESM. In both cases, we examine how these SSTs are positively correlated with the NAO amplitude. For the SOM case, we apply anomalous heat fluxes to the standard Q-flux fields to impose changes in SSTs using the interactive slab-ocean. This method allows atmosphere-ocean heat fluxes to adjust surface temperatures everywhere and feedback on the atmospheric NAO response. To analyze changes in the teleconnections, we estimate changes in both the Indian Ocean and the NAO as related to patterns in SST, sea level pressure (SLP), and precipitation. By understanding how the results of our method compare to the earlier work, we can begin to understand the the role of atmosphere-ocean feedback in teleconnection responses. In initial results, we have observed how an interactive ocean reduces the strength of the Indian Ocean-NAO teleconnection.