Internal solitary waves (ISWs) induce convergence and divergence of sea surface currents, manifesting as alternating bright-dark stripes in optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Although the relationship between ISWs surface features in SAR images and sea surface currents has been extensively explored, it hasn’t been clearly quantified in optical images. This study contrasts surface features of the same ISWs using optical and SAR images with short time intervals, and statistically analyzes the 450 ISW stripe widths determined by the distance between the brightest and darkest points in the image. The results demonstrate that ISW surface features in optical and SAR images differ, with the stripe widths of SAR images being 0.83 times those of optical images. Laboratory experiments simulating surface features in optical and SAR images exhibit a consistent quantitative relationship with remote sensing results, and this difference is primarily attributed to the free surface displacement induced by ISWs.