Nonlinear and non-stationary time series analysis 917
was not emphasized either for convenience, or for lack of a more precise frequency
definition. The second type is less familiar, but it is also a common phenomenon: if
the frequency changes from time to time within a wave its profile can no longer be
a simple sine or cosine function. Therefore, any wave-profile deformation from the
simple sinusoidal form implies the intrawave frequency modulation. In the past such
phenomena were treated as harmonic distortions. We will show in detail later that
most such deformations are better viewed as intrawave frequency modulation, for
the intrawave frequency modulation is more physical.
In order to use this unique definition of instantaneous frequency, we have to reduce
an arbitrary data set into IMF components from which an instantaneous frequency
value can be assigned to each IMF component. Consequently, for complicated data,
we can have more than one instantaneous frequency at a time locally. We will intro-
duce the empirical mode decomposition method to reduce the data into the needed
IMFs.
5. The empirical mode decomposition method: the sifting process
Knowing the well-behaved Hilbert transforms of the IMF components is only the
starting point. Unfortunately, most of the data are not IMFs. At any given time, the
data may involve more than one oscillatory mode; that is why the simple Hilbert
transform cannot provide the full description of the frequency content for the general
data as reported by Long et al. (1995). We have to decompose the data into IMF
components. Here, we will introduce a new method to deal with both non-stationary
and nonlinear data by decomposing the signal first, and discuss the physical mean-
ing of this decomposition later. Contrary to almost all the previous methods, this
new method is intuitive, direct, a posteriori and adaptive, with the basis of the
decomposition based on, and derived from, the data.
The decomposition is based on the assumptions: (1) the signal has at least two
extrema—one maximum and one minimum; (2) the characteristic time scale is
defined by the time lapse between the extrema; and (3) if the data were totally
devoid of extrema but contained only inflection points, then it can be differenti-
ated once or more times to reveal the extrema. Final results can be obtained by
integration(s) of the components.
The essence of the method is to identify the intrinsic oscillatory modes by their
characteristic time scales in the data empirically, and then decompose the data
accordingly. According to Drazin (1992), the first step of data analysis is to examine
the data by eye. From this examination, one can immediately identify the different
scales directly in two ways: by the time lapse between the successive alternations of
local maxima and minima; and by the time lapse between the successive zero cross-
ings. The interlaced local extrema and zero crossings give us the complicated data:
one undulation is riding on top of another, and they, in turn, are riding on still other
undulations, and so on. Each of these undulations defines a characteristic scale of the
data; it is intrinsic to the process. We have decided to adopt the time lapse between
successive extrema as the definition of the time scale for the intrinsic oscillatory
mode, because it not only gives a much finer resolution of the oscillatory modes, but
also can be applied to data with non-zero mean, either all positive or all negative
values, without zero crossings. A systematic way to extract them, designated as the
sifting process, is described as follows.
Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A (1998)
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