An experimental investigation of the flow field around a single Taylor bubble rising in a vertical pipe filled with stagnant water is presented. The Reynolds number of the flow based on the Taylor bubble rise velocity and the pipe diameter is 4350. The velocity field around the bubble was determined by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The mean velocity fields in front of the bubble, in the liquid film, and in the wake region were calculated by ensemble-averaging the instantaneous velocity fields measured around 100 different bubbles. Ensemble-averaged velocities become negligible at 0.5D from the bubble nose and at similar to12D from the bubble tail. However, notable instantaneous velocity fluctuations were found to exist up to 50D from the Taylor bubble tail. These residual vortices may influence the shape and the propagation velocity of the trailing bubble even at large separation distances. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.