An improved moments estimation algorithm used in a newly developed K-band wind profiler to obtain accurate 3-D profiles of wind velocity along the altitude is described. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of turbulent echoes detected by millimeter-wave radar is usually low, making it a challenging task to determine accurate Doppler profiles. And if wind profilers can provide quick estimates of wind, they will have greater applicability in automated, real-time environments. The improved method combines the concepts of adaptive Doppler windows and profile chain construction, reduces the search range of prospective spectral peaks by using adaptive Doppler windows, and designs new multiparameter cost functions to determine profile traces by studying the wind shear in the surface boundary layer. The algorithm can effectively identify the atmospheric echo components of each range bin even under the condition of low SNR, and the calculation speed is increased by at least 18% compared with the previous algorithms. The proposed method is tested on the real wind radar datasets to verify its robustness and reliability. The wind information obtained by four different algorithms is compared with the data obtained from the meteorological mast of the Gaoyou Wind Farm in China. The comparison results indicate that the present method shows a nicer match with the data of mast and it derives the winds more accurately in the atmosphere of the surface boundary layer.INDEX TERMS Moments estimation, wind profiler, surface boundary layer, adaptive Doppler window, profile chain building.