Investigating the components of the wake of ships from an optical point of view

The wake produced by moving ships, which can be seen with the human eye, may extend for tens of kilometers in the open ocean and be detectable from a distance. This wake has different components and parts that are completely subject to the movement and geometric conditions of the ships and many studies have been done on their recognition. The main importance of these studies may be for the automatic and remote identification of these ships based on the patterns of wakes produced by them by various sensors such as visible photography, infrared measurement and microwave radars installed on satellites, radars and drones. In this article, the components of this phenomenon have been studied from the point of view of a drone, or in other words, from the optical point of view, and it has been shown that although this wake is complex and has 5 general components, three of its components are clearly visible from the optical point of view: Kelvin wake, turbulent wake, and internal waves generated by the ship.