Abstract: High-speed laser diagnostic system was applied to study the structure and dynamics of a centrally staged stratified swirling flame. A high repetition rate burst mode laser with two amplifier chains was employed in this study to provide 20 kHz laser pulses for the joint planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement to track the flow/heat release rate and flow-flame front dynamics. The stratification ratio (SR) plays a central role to flame stabilization and instantaneous flow structure in stratified swirling flame. The effects of the SR lead to different flame-flame interaction patterns and locations of heat release regions. Two pilot flame stabilization patterns were identified, namely attaching ignition and merged ignition. The SR also changes the structures of flow fields and spatial distributions of shedding vortices. The quantitative evolution of the flow field structure along axial direction was studied. A vortex identification method was applied to extract the locations of shedding vortices, obtaining the spatial distribution and axial evolution of shedding vortices in inner shear layer.