Surface vessel wake detection

A system is provided for detection of surface glints on a water surface. A laser of the system produces a nearly horizontal or vertical linearly polarized laser light pulse. Lens of the system form an afocal imaging system with lateral magnification and longitudinal magnification that projects an image of the laser light at a pulse location onto the water surface. A portion of the laser light is focused onto a high speed detector. The output of the high speed detector is connected to a digitizer to provide system synchronization and to monitor the laser light. A glint image of the pulse location is detected by a broad band detector. The electrical output of the detector is input to the digitizer where the output is digitized. The output of the digitizer is then sent to a computer where the output is stored and analyzed.