Trace rare-gas–optical emission spectroscopy is carried out to characterize the nitrogen plasma as a function of discharge parameters. The functional dependence of ${\mathrm{N}}_2\left(C{}^3\Pi _u\right)$ and ${{\mathrm{N}}_2}^{+}\left(B{}^2\Sigma _u{}^{+}\right)$ excited states is monitored by measuring the emission intensities of the bandheads of second positive and first negative systems. The excited-state population density of N atoms and ${\mathrm{N}}_2$ molecules, extracted from their optical emission, is related to the ground-state population density after normalizing the changes for excitation cross section and electron energy distribution function by optical actinometry. The electron temperature is determined from the plasma-induced optical emission of trace rare gas by the line-to-line method. The obtained data may help us to adjust the optimum discharge conditions for the production of active species, which are considered to be important for the desired treatment of the samples.