The transient injection and subsequent auto-ignition of a methane jet issuing into a laminar coflow of hot exhaust gas from a lean premixed hydrogen air flame was studied using high-speed planar Rayleigh scattering, yielding two-dimensional measurements of mixture fraction, temperature and scalar dissipation rate with high spatio-temporal resolution. The temporal development of the mixing field between the transient fuel jet and the surrounding coflow prior to the occurrence of auto-ignition was examined at a sampling rate of 10 kHz. The impact of the transient jet development on numerical modeling of this test case is discussed. It was found that auto-ignition occurred after the jet transitioned from a transient state into the steady state, thus eliminating the need to model the complete transient fuel injection when the primary focus is on the onset of auto-ignition. Simultaneous high-speed OH* chemiluminescence from two viewing angles was applied to gain 3D-information of the ignition kernel location. This information allowed the selection and analysis of ignition events where the initial kernel formed inside the laser light sheet. Detailed analysis of the dynamics of a single ignition event, as well as statistical analysis of multiple ignition events based on a joint probability density approach, indicated that the ignition kernels occurred at very lean mixture fractions and at locations with low scalar dissipation rates. (C) 2016 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.