Abstract: Methods for automatic detection of ships in overhead images of bodies of water are disclosed. The image is initially analyzed to determine if land is present, and the portions of the overhead image where land is present are masked and not processed further. The methods include the steps of chipping the unmasked portions of the overhead image into a series of tiles, discriminating and removing clouds from the tiles using two-dimensional Fourier transforms, and characterizing tile background noise from the water's surface. Different ship detection algorithms are used, according to the level of background noise detected. Detected ships are output into a format that is easily interpreted by the user. The formatted output can also include a confidence rating, or a calculation of the certainty that the detected object in an output file is actually a ship.