Rotational and translational excitation of CO{sub 2} molecules by hot hydrogen atoms has been studied via time dependent diode laser absorption spectroscopy. This high resolution infrared laser probe technique has been used to measure Doppler recoil profiles of CO{sub 2} molecules as they undergo translational and rotational excitation due to collisions with translationally energetic hydrogen atoms. The detailed CO{sub 2} absorption line shapes show clear evidence of scattering both into and out of each rotational state. Classical scattering calculations were performed using a hard shell potential and the infinite order sudden approximation to simulate the experimentally observed Doppler profiles for each CO{sub 2} rotational state. The widths of the Doppler profiles for molecules scattered into each rotational state were well fit by this simple potential model, but the scattering amplitudes (number of molecules scattered into each state) were not predicted as accurately by the calculations. Correlations between translational and rotational energy transfer, in which translational recoil is found to increase with increasing changes in angular momentum {Delta}J, are clearly observed in both the experimental results and the calculations. 22 refs., 6 figs.