 In 1956 , Norman Phillips developed a mathematical model which could realistically depict monthly and seasonal patterns in the troposphere , which became the first successful climate model . Following Phillips 's work , several groups began working to create general circulation models . The first general circulation climate model that combined both oceanic and atmospheric processes was developed in the late 1960s at the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory . By the early 1980s , the United States ' National Center for Atmospheric Research had developed the Community Atmosphere Model ; this model has been continuously refined into the 2000s . In 1986 , efforts began to initialize and model soil and vegetation types , which led to more realistic forecasts . For example , the Center for Ocean @-@ Land Atmosphere Studies ( <unk> ) model showed a warm temperature bias of 2 @-@ 4 ° C ( 4 @-@ 7 ° F ) and a low precipitation bias due to incorrect <unk> of crop and vegetation type across the central United States . Coupled ocean @-@ atmosphere climate models such as the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research 's <unk> model are currently being used as inputs for climate change studies . The importance of gravity waves was neglected within these models until the mid @-@ 1980s . Now , gravity waves are required within global climate models in order to properly simulate regional and global scale circulations , though their broad spectrum makes their incorporation complicated . The Climate System Model ( CSM ) was developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in January 1994 . 
