The interaction between a moving submarine and seawater generates characteristic wakes on the sea surface, enabling indirect detection of undersea objects via airborne remote sensing. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of using visible-light polarization imaging to observe submarine wakes. The key links in the imagine chain are considered separately. These include the polarization patterns of skylight, the elevations and slopes of submarine wakes and sea waves, and the changes in the sea surface polarized bidirectional reflectance characteristics due to modulation of gravity–capillary waves by the wake’s velocity field. A complete model of the airborne optical polarization imaging process is constructed and images are simulated via ray tracing. All theories proposed are verified by a series of terrestrial observation experiments. The results show that both the sea surface roughness modulation by the wake’s velocity field and the sea surface slope formed by wake elevation play significant roles in the imaging process. The wake features in the Stokes vector linear polarization component (Q, U) images are effectively enhanced, and the environmental adverse effect on these images is smaller than that on the intensity images. The degree of linear polarization (DoLP) and angle of polarization (AoP) images exhibit acceptable contrast under certain zenith and azimuth angles. Thus, our analysis confirms that airborne optical polarization imaging has considerable potential for observing wakes and other small- and medium-scale ocean dynamic processes.

移动的潜艇与海水之间的相互作用会在海面上产生特征性的尾流，从而能够通过机载遥感间接探测海底物体。在这里，我们展示了使用可见光偏振成像观察潜艇尾流的可行性。想象链中的关键环节是分开考虑的。这些包括天窗的偏振模式、海底尾流和海浪的高程和坡度，以及由于尾流速度场对重力-毛细波的调制而导致的海面偏振双向反射特性的变化。构建了机载光学偏振成像过程的完整模型，并通过光线追踪模拟图像。提出的所有理论都得到了一系列地面观测实验的验证。结果表明，尾流速度场对海面粗糙度的调制和尾流高程形成的海面坡度在成像过程中起着重要作用。Stokes 矢量线性偏振分量中的尾流特征 (Q , U ) 图像得到有效增强，环境对这些图像的不利影响小于强度图像。线性偏振（度DoLP）和偏振的角度（AOP）图像表现出某些天顶角和方位角下可接受的对比度。因此，我们的分析证实，机载光学偏振成像在观测尾流和其他中小尺度海洋动力学过程方面具有相当大的潜力。