In order to study the stability of gliding arc plasma discharge under mal-conditions, an experimental system for studying the high air pressure alternating current rotating gliding arc discharge is built. The discharge characteristics, arc motion characteristics and spectral characteristics of rotating gliding arc discharge are analyzed under high pressure experimentally. Experimental results show that the voltage, current and energy increase in the gliding arc discharge with the increase of air pressure. As the air pressure rises to 0.52 MPa, the discharge energy increases from 84.74 to 147.13 J. With the increase of gas pressure, the breakdown frequency of the arc does not change monotonically, but reaches a maximum value of 26.55 kHz at 0.2 MPa, while the emission spectral intensity increases. The “arc channel mutation” occurs in the process of arc motion under high pressure. The electron excitation temperature in the process of gliding arc discharge is calculated by the two-line method, and the electron excitation temperature of gliding arc discharge is 0.8153 eV at an atmosphere pressure. The electron excitation temperature rises with the increase of air pressure. The excitation temperature increases to 5.3165 eV at an air pressure of 0.4 MPa.