Air entrainment by plunging jets and the consequent production of bubbles play an increasing role in industrial and environmental applications. Generally, air entrainment can be seen as the consequence of two complementary mechanisms: (1) the interfacial shear along the liquid jet interface which drags down an air boundary layer and (2) the air entrapment process at the point of impact of the plunging jet with the receiving pool. The latter process is usually dominated by growing interfacial disturbances travelling on the jet. The great variety of these disturbances is represented by the concept of dynamic interfacial roughness of which a definition is provided and justified. To measure this quantity, an easy-to-use optical technique is designed. The dynamic interfacial roughness and the ability to entrap air by a plunging jet are found to depend on the hydrodynamical noise applied to the jet. The optical technique is presented as a very simple tool to optimally devise the internal design of nozzles and then, to control air entrainment. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.