Secular variation
Long-term non-periodic variation / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The secular variation of a time series is its long-term, non-periodic variation (see decomposition of time series). Whether a variation is perceived as secular or not depends on the available timescale: a variation that is secular over a timescale of centuries may be a segment of what is, over a timescale of millions of years, a periodic variation. Natural quantities often have both periodic and secular variations. Secular variation is sometimes called secular trend or secular drift when the emphasis is on a linear long-term trend.
The term is used wherever time series are applicable in history, economics, operations research, biological anthropology, and astronomy (particularly celestial mechanics) such as VSOP (planets).