Environmental scientist · Hydroclimate researcher
Johanna R. Thomson
I study how choices in climate and hydrological data shape our understanding of the terrestrial water cycle.
Research profile
My work sits at the intersection of hydrology, climate data analysis, and environmental modelling. I evaluate large-scale observational and model-based datasets, with particular attention to evapotranspiration, precipitation, uncertainty, and hydroclimatic change.
I develop reproducible workflows for comparing datasets across space and time, diagnosing disagreement among products, and communicating the consequences of methodological choices. My research combines environmental process knowledge with statistical analysis, data visualization, and open scientific software.
Hydroclimate data
Evaluation of gridded evapotranspiration and precipitation products across regions, environments, and timescales.
Uncertainty assessment
Quantifying dataset agreement, sensitivity to method selection, and uncertainty in inferred trends.
Reproducible workflows
Open, transparent analysis in R with reusable code, documented data products, and traceable research outputs.
Current directions
- Multi-source assessment of terrestrial evapotranspiration trends
- Methods for interpreting agreement and disagreement among Earth observation datasets
- Reproducible environmental data infrastructure and scientific software
- Uncertainty-aware analysis for hydrology and Earth system research
Selected work
Agreement, opposition, and dataset influence in global evapotranspiration trends
Earth System Science Data Discussions preprint, in review, 2026. Preprint · Dataset · Code
evapoRe: An R-based application for exploratory data analysis of evapotranspiration
Environmental Modelling & Software, 2026. Article · R package
Which precipitation dataset to choose for hydrological studies of the terrestrial water cycle?
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2025. Article · Code
Unveiling the impact of potential evapotranspiration method selection on trends in hydrological cycle components across Europe
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2025. Article · Data and code