The Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the atmospheric polarimetric distribution under water clouds. The results show that the polarimetric response of water clouds in the ultraviolet (UV) band of 360-400 nm is the largest as compared to that of other spectra. Polarization pictures of buildings, clouds, and the sky in the same field of view are taken using UV-visible polarimetric imaging technology. Hough transform is used to divide these pictures, and statistical analysis is applied to each segment. The statistical results show that the relative differences of the polarization degree and polarization angle of the cloud-free and cloudy areas are -14% and 1.6%, respectively, providing the robustness of polarization angle in atmospheric detection. The UV and visible are found to be complementary in polarimetric detection for the clouds. Thus, image fusion technology in conjunction with a Laplacian pyramid can improve the detection capability for atmospheric targets. Results verify that the UV-visible polarimetric imaging technology with large field-of-view and high resolution is feasible and effective for atmospheric detection.