A new dynamical core for NWP based on the spectral element semi-Lagrangian method developed in [1] and [2] is presented. This work extends the SEE-AM dynamical core (also presented at this workshop) to a semi-Lagrangian time discretization, and to a spectral element vertical discretization. The semi-Lagrangian time discretization will allow for much larger time-steps while the spectral element vertical discretization will cure many of the ailments of our current finite difference method. In addition, this new vertical discretization will allow the SESL scheme to be applied to all three spatial dimensions. A progress report on this effort will be given including results for at least two test cases: the Rossby-Haurwitz waves 1 and 4.

[1] F.X. Giraldo, The Lagrange-Galerkin spectral element method on unstructured quadrilateral grids, Journal of Computational Physics, Vol 147, 114-146 (1998).

[2] F.X. Giraldo and J.B. Perot, A spectral element semi-Lagrangian (SESL) method for the spherical shallow water equations, Journal of Computational Physics, in review (October 2001).