3 decades of satellite images show how cities keep getting higher

The full Worm Moon rises behind the skyline of midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building in New York City as traffic drives down the 14th Street viaduct on March 25, 2024, in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Cities around the world are growing upward more than they are spreading outward, scientists studying decades of satellite data recently announced — quantifying a profound, global shift in development of cities, where chains of skyscrapers have also become their single biggest contributor to increasing heat.

"Cities everywhere have grown," study lead author Steve Frolking of the University of New Hampshire told Space.com. "I don't think it's particularly a surprising result — everybody's individual experience with a particular city is that there are probably more tall buildings now than there were 20 years ago."