  CO$_2$ dissociation stimulated by vibrational excitation in non-equilibrium
discharges has drawn lots of attention. Ns-discharges are known for their
highly non-equilibrium conditions. It is therefore of interest to investigate
the CO$_2$ excitation in such discharges. In this paper, we demonstrate the
ability for monitoring the time evolution of CO$_2$ ro-vibrational excitation
with a well-selected wavelength window around 2289.0 cm$^{-1}$ and a single CW
quantum cascade laser (QCL) with both high accuracy and temporal resolution.
The rotational and vibrational temperatures for both the symmetric and the
asymmetric modes of CO$_2$ in the afterglow of CO$_2$ + He ns-discharge were
measured with a temporal resolution of 1.5 $\mu$s. The non-thermal feature and
the preferential excitation of the asymmetric stretch mode of CO$_2$ were
experimentally observed, with a peak temperature of $T_{v3, max}$ = 966 $\pm$
1.5 K, $T_{v12, max}$ = 438.4 $\pm$ 1.2 K and $T_{rot}$ = 334.6 $\pm$ 0.6 K
reached at 3 $\mu$s after the nanosecond pulse. In the following relaxation
process, an exponential decay with a time constant of 69 $\mu$s was observed
for the asymmetric stretch (001) state, consistent with the dominant
deexcitation mechanism due to VT transfer with He and deexcitation on the wall.
Furthermore, a synchronous oscillation of the gas temperature and the total
pressure was also observed and can be explained by a two-line thermometry and
adiabatic process. The period of the oscillation and its dependence on the gas
components is consistent with a standing acoustic wave excited by the
ns-discharge.
