An improvement of methods for estimating the rotational temperature from the partially resolved 391.44 nm emission band of N2
+
(B 2
u
+
- X 2
g
+
) has been developed by numerically studying this band as a function both of the temperature and of the instrumental function of the detection system. We give a simple tabulation for which one can obtain, without calculation, the rotational temperature in the range 300-900 K from measurements of the band profile considered and the experimental function. The accuracy of the temperature evaluation is better than to within 10%. The approach is validated in the range 340 - 410 K, using measurements of the 391.44 nm band in a pure N2
dc magnetron discharge.
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