Wind gradient

Not to be confused with gradient wind.
This article is about the interaction of horizontal wind with the earth's surface. For a more general treatment of related phenomena, see wind shear.

In common usage, wind gradient, more specifically wind speed gradient or wind velocity gradient, or alternatively shear wind, is the vertical component of the spatial gradient of the mean horizontal wind speed in the lower atmosphere. It is the rate of increase of wind strength with unit increase in height above ground level. In metric units, it is often measured in units of speed (meters per second) divided by units of height (kilometers), resulting in m/s/km, which reduces to a multiple of the standard unit of shear rate, inverse seconds (s−1).

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