Submarine detection is a key technology of coastline defense, the direct and indirect imaging to detect submarines both involves solving the problem of detecting the water surface ripple. 3D surface measurement method based on polarization detection can effectively detect the water corrugated surface, in which the detection and calculation of surface polarization characteristics is an important part of surface reconstruction. The model of water surface polarization was established. Visible and infrared waveband of the water polarization characteristic under different water temperature, different meteorological conditions were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the surface polarization is s polarization in the visible waveband and p polarization in the middle and long infrared waveband, degree of polarization first increases with the increase of incident angle and then decreases, moreover the degree of water surface polarization increases with the rising of temperature. The degree of water surface polarization in visible, middle infrared and long infrared waveband was measured by polarization measurement system based on Stokes vector. The results of the simulation were consistent with the measured results, which proved the accuracy of the polarization model used. The characteristics of polarization imaging detection in common wavebands were analyzed, which can provide theoretical simulation and experimental methods for the analysis and calculation of polarization characteristics of water surface.