Temperature sensing for controlling paving and compaction operations

A pavement temperature monitoring system (10) is used on paver vehicle (12) that is capable of forming a pavement material mat (11) upon abase surface (13), as paver vehicle (12) travels generally in a single direction. A temperature sensor (14) can be either a thermal imager, a thermal scanner, or a thermal imager operating in line "scan" mode. The temperature sensor (14) is mounted on a rear end (12a) of the paver vehicle (12) in such a way that the entire width of the formed mat can be scanned or imaged. A display device (16) is capable of receiving a plurality of electrical signals from the thermal scanner generating and displaying a graphical image (17) of the formed mat temperature profile.