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The wind shear theory is widely accepted as an explanation for the formation of a sporadic E (Es) layer, but the direct comparison of Es with the local wind shear has been limited due to the lack of neutral wind measurements. This study examines the role of the vertical wind shear for Es, using signal‐to‐noise ratio profiles from COSMIC‐2 radio occultation measurements and concurrent measurements of neutral wind profiles from the Ionospheric Connection Explorer. It is observed that the Es occurrence rate and average S4 index are correlated with the negative vertical shear of the eastward wind, providing observational support for the wind shear theory. Es can be observed even when the vertical wind shear is positive, which is interpreted as metallic ion layers generated at an earlier time.

We compare coincident thermospheric neutral wind observations made by the Michelson Interferometer for Global High‐Resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) on the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft, and four ground‐based specular meteor radars (SMRs). Using the green‐line MIGHTI channel, we analyze 1158 coincidences between Dec 2019 and May 2020 in the altitude range from 94 to 104 km where the observations overlap. We find that the two datasets are strongly correlated (r = 0.82) with a small mean difference (4.5 m/s). Although this agreement is good, an analysis of known error sources (e.g., shot noise, calibration errors, and analysis assumptions) can only account for about a quarter of the disagreement variance. The unexplained variance is 27.8% of the total signal variance and could be caused by unknown errors. However, based on an analysis of the spatial and temporal averaging of the two measurement modalities, we suggest that some of the disagreement is likely caused by temporal variability of the wind on scales ≲70 min. The observed magnitudes agree well during the night, but during the day, MIGHTI observes 16%–25% faster winds than the SMRs. This remains unresolved but is similar in certain ways to previous SMR‐satellite comparisons.