Time-resolved behaviour of vibrational populations following optical e
xcitation in CO is investigated. Measurements of CO first overtone inf
rared emission are performed. A one-dimensional kinetic model is devel
oped to describe the time-resolved behaviour of infrared optical signa
ls from CO ground state vibrational levels. The available CO V-V rate
constants are tested. A simple model of vibration-to-electronic transf
er is proposed to improve the agreement between experimental results a
nd numerical simulations.