A two-level method for sparse time-frequency representation of multiscale data

Based on the recently developed data-driven time-frequency analysis (Hou and Shi, 2013), we propose a two-level method to look for the sparse time-frequency decomposition of multiscale data. In the two-level method, we first run a local algorithm to get a good approximation of the instantaneous frequency. We then pass this instantaneous frequency to the global algorithm to get an accurate global intrinsic mode function (IMF) and instantaneous frequency. The two-level method alleviates the difficulty of the mode mixing to some extent. We also present a method to reduce the end effects.