The file topodata_0.9x1.25_USGS_070110_stream_c151120.nc is identical to
lnd/clm2/griddata/topodata_0.9x1.25_USGS_070110.nc, but with TOPO having a
time-dimension, so that it can be read as a stream. It was modified as follows:

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In python (after: from netCDF4 import Dataset):

topodata = Dataset('topodata_0.9x1.25_USGS_070110_stream_c151120.nc', 'a')

topodata.createDimension('time', size=1)
topodata.createVariable('time', 'f8', ('time'))
topodata.variables['time'].long_name = "observation time (set arbitrarily to year 2000)"
topodata.variables['time'].units = 'days since 2000-01-01 00:00:00'
topodata.variables['time'].calendar = 'noleap'
topodata.variables['time'][:] = 0.

topodata.renameVariable('TOPO', 'TOPO_old')
topodata.createVariable('TOPO', 'f8', ('time','lsmlat','lsmlon'))
topodata.variables['TOPO'][:] = topodata.variables['TOPO_old'][:]
topodata.variables['TOPO'].long_name = "topography height"
topodata.variables['TOPO'].units = 'm'

topodata.renameDimension('lsmlat','lat')
topodata.renameDimension('lsmlon','lon')

topodata.close()

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Removing old TOPO variable using nco, because there is no way to delete a
variable using python's netCDF4:

ncks -x -v TOPO_old topodata_0.9x1.25_USGS_070110_stream_c151120.nc topodata_new.nc
mv topodata_new.nc topodata_0.9x1.25_USGS_070110_stream_c151120.nc