A strong nonresonant, asymmetric ultrashort pulse drives an atomic transition and causes a complete population inversion because of a sudden nonadiabatic jump. This jump is probed in real time by propagating a weak ultrashort pulse in the system which is resonant on an adjacent transition. The probe at the exit of the medium presents an oscillatory structure with the nonadiabatic jump marked in time by the onset of oscillations. The nonadiabatic jump thus acts as a "turn-on" switch for the shaping of the probe.