Large ships such as aircraft carriers, frigates, and cruisers are main threats to national security, so all-day ships detection has great martial value. After a ship passed through the sea, a ship wake can be thousands of meters in length and last for a long time. The geographical location and motion parameters of the ship target can be estimated by analyzing the wake. In some remote sensing images, the wake is more visible than the hull. However, the wake does not always exist when the ship is anchored in port, so the hull detection is applied in a wider range of scenarios. This paper summarizes state-of-the-art detection methods for hull and wake, and analyzes the existing problems and the future work by researching literature works. At present, the infrared characteristics of ship are mostly studied based on simulation model, and the wake detection model is established based on simulation image, which lacks the real on-orbit infrared remote sensing data verification. Based on the images of SDGSAT-1 satellite multispectral imager (MII) and thermal imaging spectrometer (TIS), the characteristics of the wakes in visible light and thermal infrared (TIR) bands are analyzed and studied. We aim to provide support for ship monitoring throughout the day based on infrared remote sensing images.