Abstract: Objectives Addressing the issue of identifying underwater vehicle wakes in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images within a density stratified environment, a theoretical solution model and quantitative analysis method have been established. Methods Based on the statistical information of ocean stratification characteristics, a theoretical model of internal waves induced by equivalent sources of moving mass and momentum is designed. This model calculates the modulated wave spectrum of each statistically independent sea surface unit and the corresponding intensity distribution mapped in SAR images. Subsequently, texture feature information of internal wave wakes in the images is extracted using the gray level co-occurrence matrix. Results The study results indicate that under specific parameter conditions, the identifiable range of internal wave wakes in SAR images is when the maximum buoyancy frequency exceeds 0.02 rad/s and the corresponding depth is less than 100 meters. Conclusions This method can effectively calculate and analyze the identifiability of internal wave wakes in any density stratified environment.