A model of the production and loss of odd nitrogen species (mainly, N(⁴S), N(²D), NO, and NO⁺) and the enhanced vibration-rotation band emission from NO in the infrared from the aurorally dosed terrestrial nighttime thermosphere is described. This model is assessed by analyzing the observations of the fundamental (Δv = −1, ∼5.3 μm) and overtone (Δv = −2, ∼2.7 μm) NO vibration-rotation band limb emissions made by a Michelson interferometer and radiometer, respectively, aboard the Cryogenic Infrared Radiance Instrumentation for Shuttle (CIRRIS-1A) experiment on the space shuttle Discovery during an auroral event. The auroral dosing along the line of sight is inferred from the 2.7-μm radiance profiles using a self-consistent procedure. The dosing obtained is then used in the model to predict the spectrally resolved emission in the 5.3-μm region. The calculated overtone radiance profiles agree with the measured ones at lower tangent altitudes, where the signal-to-noise ratio is large. The calculation, however, underpredicts the observed radiance, both fundamental and overtone, at higher tangent altitudes by a factor of ∼3 and gives a colder rotational temperature for the rotationally hot component of the spectrally resolved emission from nascent NO. The causes of this discrepancy and its impact on the densities of the odd N species are discussed.