  A simplified and straightforward methodology that may be used to measure N(4
S) density by TALIF technique in strongly emissive plasmas is presented. The
method makes use of the absorption peak intensities instead of the fully
integrated absorption line intensity. The use of this method, along with a
physics-based fitting/filtering procedure enables strongly reducing the
experimental uncertainty and performing measurement even in strongly emitting
discharges. After validation, the method was employed to investigate the
transients of a strongly emissive pulsed microwave discharge. We especially
showed the existence of unexpected increase of N(4 S) density at the early
stage of the transition from high-to lowpower phase. The use of a
self-consistent quasi-homogenous plasma model taking into account a detailed
state-to-state kinetics, enables to attribute this enhancement to surface
deexcitation of N(2 D) and N(2 P).
