The carbon dioxide dimer spectroscopic patterns are retrieved from the analysis of collision-induced absorption (CIA) spectral bandshape at room temperature. It is shown that the use of the simplified model based on the symmetric-top approximation allows roughly consistent simulation of the observed (CO2)2 dimer spectrum. The rotational constants obtained can be considered as effective thermally averaged constants which characterize dimeric structure, strongly distorted from the ground state. The overall CIA bandshape and the integrated intensity of absorption are broken down into partial contributions from tightly bound and metastable dimers and free-pair states. This approach is shown to be in agreement with a wide range of independent spectroscopic and thermodynamic data.
