The stable boundary layer (SBL) over land exhibits pronounced vertical decoupling and structural heterogeneity that remain challenging to diagnose using routine operational monitoring. Here, we utilize a three-year continuous multi-level tower dataset ( quality-controlled 15-min records at 2, 10, 20, and 50 m) over the Horqin Grassland to characterize stability-dependent modifications of surface-layer wind structure and near-surface kinetic energy. Using the bulk Richardson number () and raw thermal gradients (), we identify a stability-driven reduction in vertical wind coupling, with a statistical change-point cluster centered near (95% CI: 0.09–0.52). Cross-level correlation analysis empirically localizes a structural transition zone to the 10–20 m interval, separating a faster, shear-driven upper layer from a dynamically suppressed near-surface flow under strong stability. Concurrently, near-surface horizontal kinetic energy () undergoes a 47% (nighttime) to 55% (full-record) median reduction, while horizontal wind-direction variability () broadens due to low-wind meandering, and sub-hourly vertical velocity variance () is suppressed by 57–72% across all heights. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) reveals a statistically significant phase-space compaction under high stability ( vs. , ), with adjusted odds ratios highlighting thermal gradient (), wind shear (), and directional variability () as dominant positive predictors. These empirical patterns remain robust under temporal-holdout validation (Year-1 calibration vs. Years 2–3 validation; consensus breakpoint vs. ) and seasonal/wind-speed stratifications. The results demonstrate that routine 15-min multi-level tower networks provide valuable observational constraints on surface-layer structural transitions, informing boundary-layer parameterizations in numerical weather prediction models and near-surface dispersion assessments.