Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy of CO was studied in the controlled laboratory environments of a heated cell and a combustion exhaust rig. Two absorption lines, R (10) and R (11) in the first overtone band of CO near 2.3 µm, were selected from a HITRAN simulation to minimize interference from water vapor at a representative combustion exhaust temperature (∼ 1200 K). The linestrengths and collision broadening coefficients for these lines were measured in a heated static cell. This database was then used in a comparative study of direct absorption and wavelength-modulation absorption. CO concentration measurements using scanned-wavelength direct absorption (DA) and wavelength modulation with the second-harmonic signal normalized by the first-harmonic signal (WMS-2f/1f) all agreed with those measured by a conventional gas sampling analyzer over the range from< 10 ppm to 2.3%. As expected, water vapor was found to be the dominant source of background interference for CO detection in combustion flows at high temperatures. Water absorption was measured to a high spectral resolution within the wavelength region 4295–4301 cm− 1 at 1100 K, and shown to produce< 10 ppm level interference for CO detection in combustion exhausts at temperatures up to 1200 K. We found that the WMS-2f/1f strategy avoids the need for WMS calibration measurements but requires characterization of the wavelength and injection-current intensity modulation of the specific diode laser. We conclude that WMS-2f/1f using the selected R (10) or R (11) transitions in the CO overtone band holds good promise for sensitive in situ detection of ppm-level CO in combustion flows, with high resistance to interference absorption from H 2 O.