Leninsky prosp., 1 19991, Moscow, Russia, seleznev(äjsci. lebedev. ru; phone/fax 7(095)132-0425 * TRINITI, Troitsk, Moscow Region, Russia ABSTRACT Time behavior of gas temperature in CO containing gas mixture excited in pulsed electron-beam sustained discharge (EBSD) was experimentally studied under different experimental conditions. To study time behavior of gas temperature, the fact that the gas temperature is equivalent to the rotational temperature of gas molecules was used. Rotational distribution of the excited states of CO molecule was reconstructed from measured small-signal gain dynamics on different ro-vibrational transitions. The time behavior of small-signal gain was obtained with probe low-pressure CW CO laser for ten ro-vibrational spectral lines. Gas mixtures CO:He=1 :4 and CO:N2=1:9 typical for a CO laser were used.It was demonstrated that gas temperature grew from 1 10 K (initial temperature) up to 45O K for the first hundred microsecond after EBSD beginning and was staying at this value for a long time (more than 1 ms) for both gas mixtures. EBSD pulse duration was -3Oj.ts. The method of reconstruction of gas temperature time history was also applied for oxygen gas mixture CO:02=1:20 at gas pressure 0.04 atm, which was used for obtaining singlet delta oxygen in EBSD. The method can be used for diagnostic of non-equilibrium gas mixtures containing CO molecule.