dashurve

Dashurve is a term used in data visualization and time-series analysis to describe a stylized pattern in which short, transient events (dashes) punctuate a longer, smooth curve (urve). The concept is used informally to discuss how data can simultaneously exhibit both abrupt changes and gradual trends within the same series. The term combines dash and curve, and first appeared in visualization discussions in the mid-2010s. It has no formal mathematical definition in standard statistics; rather, it serves as a heuristic to describe data behavior.

Typically, a dashurve pattern features a high-frequency component of rapid spikes or dashed events overlaid on a low-frequency component that forms the underlying curve. This pattern can be observed in contexts such as social-media activity, intermittent outbreaks in epidemiology, or sensor data with sporadic noise. In visualizations, dashed line styles are often used to emphasize the high-frequency component.

In practice, analysts invoke the dashurve concept to discuss multimodal or bursty behavior and to motivate decomposition methods such as filtering or wavelet analysis. However, the term remains informal, and its lack of a precise definition can limit cross-study comparability.

See also: Time-series analysis, spike detection, burst analysis, data visualization.