Systems and methods for lasing molecular gases, and systems and methods of detecting molecular species are provided. The systems and methods can include the use of an excitation laser (820) tuned to a wavelength associated with oxygen or nitrogen. The lasing-can occur in both the forward and reverse directions relative to the excitation laser beam (822). Reverse lasing can provide a laser beam (824) that propagates back toward the excitation laser source (820), and can provide a method for remote sampling of molecular species contained in the air with a dichroic beam splitter (835) and detector (830). For example, systems and methods of detecting a molecular species of interest can be achieved by using the properties of the backward or forward propagating air laser to indicate a change in a pulse from the source of laser pulses caused by a modulation laser (810) tuned to interact with the molecular species of interest by changing the properties of the air by heating or multi-photon ionization of a Raman interaction.