Taking advantages of the special characteristics of a transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) CO2 laser, the analysis of sodium aerosol has been successfully conducted by using laser-induced gas plasma spectroscopy (LIGPS) method. In this study, the sodium aerosol was deposited on a nickel metal plate; the metal plate functions as a subtarget to initiate a gas plasma. When a pulsed TEA CO2 laser was focused on the metal surface, a large-volume and high-temperature gas plasma was induced. The fine particles of sodium then entered into the gas plasma region to be dissociated and excited. By using this technique, a semi quantitative analysis of sodium aerosol was made. The detection limit of sodium was approximately 200 ppb. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.