1. A computer-implemented method for detecting a vessel in water based on an image of a portion of Earth, the method comprising: generating a thermal anomaly mask flagging each pixel of the image initially deemed to be a wake pixel based on a comparison of a thermal value of each pixel against other thermal values of other pixels localized about each pixel; grouping contiguous pixels flagged by the thermal anomaly mask into pixel clusters; analyzing a shape of each of the pixel clusters to determine whether each of the pixel clusters represents a possible vessel detection event; and visually representing any possible vessel detection event within the image.