Abstract: Infrared imaging is an important method to detect the thermal wake target on sea surface of underwater vehicles. By utilizing the modeling and simulation method, based on the sea surface temperature distribution characteristics of the wake region, combined with the space coordinate transformation and projection mapping method, the infrared imaging simulation process of the thermal wake target was realized. Under the same detection conditions, the distribution of the radiant energy of the thermal wake with the band, and the variation of the shape of the hot wake in the image plane and the brightness changing law of the infrared radiation under different azimuths and heights were obtained. The effects of noise on the thermal wake under typical working conditions and the contrast and sharpness of the sea surface, as well as the difficulty of detecting and identifying the thermal wake target were demonstrated.The simulation results show that under the same detection conditions, the radiant energy of the thermal wake in the 8 μm~12 μm band is much larger than the 3 μm~5 μm band; when the length of the detection path is constant, with the angle of the detection zenith increasing, the observed brightness of the infrared radiation of the thermal wake decreases, and the area occupied by the thermal wake in the image plane gradually decreases.