Latest news with #NLCs
Sharjah 24
26-06-2025
- General
- Sharjah 24
SEA launches 'Leadership Lab' initiative for government nurseries
The initiative includes a series of carefully designed interactive and experiential stations aimed at supporting educational leadership at the nursery level. These experiences enable participants to conduct in-depth analyses of the nursery environment, understand children's needs, and identify specific challenges and opportunities, thereby steering clear of generalizations and fostering evidence-based decision-making. The session also welcomed a select group of experts and administrators from Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA), who enriched the discussions and provided valuable insights to support the development of learning environments across the emirate's nurseries, reinforcing collaboration among key educational stakeholders. In this context, Khawla Al Hosani, Vice Chancellor of Sharjah Education Academy, stated: 'We are pleased to launch the Leadership Lab series, which has been thoughtfully designed to empower leaders of Sharjah Government Nurseries by enhancing their knowledge and skills in data-driven participatory planning, in line with modern educational approaches and contributing to Excellence in early childhood education in Sharjah.' 'We work closely with nursery leaders to provide guidance and support that contributes to continuously improving the performance of the nurseries. At the Academy, we take responsibility for ongoing enhancement and innovation to ensure safe, engaging, and enriching learning environments for children in the Emirate of Sharjah.' She added. The Leadership Labs initiative also aims to foster a culture of collaborative learning through the launch of Networks for Learning Communities (NLCs), which enable leaders to exchange experiences and develop practical, effective improvement plans supported by concepts of collaborative planning, visionary leadership, and institutional foresight. The initiative also introduced the AMIRA program, which offers a rich space for reflection, imagination, and strategic foresight. It empowers participants to develop inspiring strategic visions that reflect the current realities and aspirations of their nurseries, and to translate these visions into actionable steps that create a tangible impact within early childhood environments. Among the program's activities was the 'Field of Impact,' an open platform for sharing ideas and presenting future scenarios. The session focused on identifying enablers and support mechanisms that can be activated at the system level to ensure the sustainability of improvement and the advancement of institutional performance in nurseries.
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The intriguing phenomena we can see in the skies this week
The summer evenings offer us the opportunity to sight some rather intriguing and beguiling phenomena. Noctilucent clouds, (NLCs), make for an interesting spectacle after sunset, observable with the naked eye and quite eerie in appearance. Around two hours after the Sun has set and looking above the northwest horizon, watch for wispy threads of cloud with a distinct blue and silver tinge to them. Taken from the Latin for 'night-shining', NLCs are formed by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude ice crystals that are positioned right on the edge of space. The time period after sunset is crucial if we are to catch NLCs, as around 90 minutes to two hours after the Sun has dipped below the horizon is when the necessary angle occurs for sunlight to catch the crystals and illuminate that part of the sky with this enchanting effect. The beautiful and captivating sight sees the highest clouds in our atmosphere, about 50 miles above the Earth's surface, seem to glow and shimmer with this mesmerizing blue or silvery guise. In the summertime the mesosphere, (the third layer of the Earth's atmosphere where meteorites burn up), becomes cold enough to allow ice to form on suspended dust particles that are floating around in the clouds. These particles may originate from meteorites falling from space, but equally so from other sources, possible volcanic, with the recent Mount Etna eruption billowing tons of debris into the atmosphere. In fact, the first NLCs observations were recorded in 1885, two years after the eruption of Krakatoa, which may or may not have something to do with their appearance. Eruptions aside, rockets that have blasted off from Earth leave particle emissions from their exhaust systems, all contributing to the array of debris circulating in our atmosphere. NLC's have been given a different name when seen from space looking back on Earth; polar mesospheric clouds, or (PMCs). However, the Earth is not the only place NLC's have been witnessed. Launched in June 2003, Mars Express was not only the first European mission to Mars, but the first planetary mission operated entirely by Europe. There were reports of NLC's made three years into the Mars Express mission in 2006, with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover confirming the presence of NLC's in 2019. Readers may well recall all the media hype over Asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year was once considered the highest impact risk to Earth ever recorded. Earlier this week, NASA announced that previously collected data on the asteroid that has been reanalysed now reveals that the 174 to 220 feet-long chunk of rock is more likely to hit the Moon in 2032. During the week ahead, watch for Mars in the evening sky as it moves its way slowly night by night, left to right, above the bright star Regulus in the constellation of Leo, the Lion, situated above the western horizon. The International Space Station continues its early summer break and cannot be seen across our region at present. Send your astrophotography pictures to: thenightsky@
South Wales Argus
14-06-2025
- Science
- South Wales Argus
What we can see in the sky this coming week
Noctilucent clouds, (NLCs), make for an interesting spectacle after sunset, observable with the naked eye and quite eerie in appearance. Around two hours after the Sun has set and looking above the northwest horizon, watch for wispy threads of cloud with a distinct blue and silver tinge to them. Taken from the Latin for 'night-shining', NLCs are formed by sunlight reflecting off high-altitude ice crystals that are positioned right on the edge of space. The time period after sunset is crucial if we are to catch NLCs, as around 90 minutes to two hours after the Sun has dipped below the horizon is when the necessary angle occurs for sunlight to catch the crystals and illuminate that part of the sky with this enchanting effect. The beautiful and captivating sight sees the highest clouds in our atmosphere, about 50 miles above the Earth's surface, seem to glow and shimmer with this mesmerizing blue or silvery guise. In the summertime the mesosphere, (the third layer of the Earth's atmosphere where meteorites burn up), becomes cold enough to allow ice to form on suspended dust particles that are floating around in the clouds. These particles may originate from meteorites falling from space, but equally so from other sources, possible volcanic, with the recent Mount Etna eruption billowing tons of debris into the atmosphere. In fact, the first NLCs observations were recorded in 1885, two years after the eruption of Krakatoa, which may or may not have something to do with their appearance. Eruptions aside, rockets that have blasted off from Earth leave particle emissions from their exhaust systems, all contributing to the array of debris circulating in our atmosphere. NLC's have been given a different name when seen from space looking back on Earth; polar mesospheric clouds, or (PMCs). However, the Earth is not the only place NLC's have been witnessed. Launched in June 2003, Mars Express was not only the first European mission to Mars, but the first planetary mission operated entirely by Europe. There were reports of NLC's made three years into the Mars Express mission in 2006, with NASA's Curiosity Mars rover confirming the presence of NLC's in 2019. Readers may well recall all the media hype over Asteroid 2024 YR4, which earlier this year was once considered the highest impact risk to Earth ever recorded. Earlier this week, NASA announced that previously collected data on the asteroid that has been reanalysed now reveals that the 174 to 220 feet-long chunk of rock is more likely to hit the Moon in 2032. During the week ahead, watch for Mars in the evening sky as it moves its way slowly night by night, left to right, above the bright star Regulus in the constellation of Leo, the Lion, situated above the western horizon. The International Space Station continues its early summer break and cannot be seen across our region at present. Send your astrophotography pictures to: thenightsky@
