Busan has 36 air quality monitoring stations, 35 of which also measure PM2.5. You can read the current levels starting from the station nearest to you.
Busan is a city whose air the sea keeps washing. Despite a major port and industrial facilities, its winter readings tend to run below those of inland cities of the same size, because a steady sea breeze never lets pollutants settle in one place.
Busan has little flat ground; its neighbourhoods sit in the gaps between ridges. Geumjeongsan, Hwangnyeongsan and Jangsan carve the city up, so the wind runs differently valley by valley even within the same city. That terrain is a good part of why Haeundae and the Sasang–Buk-gu side read differently.
Being on the coast means the air does not stagnate the way it does inland. Even on days when high readings blanket the whole country in winter, Busan often climbs less. The temperature difference between sea and land keeps generating wind.
That said, on calm or foggy days pollutants can get trapped in the inner areas ringed by mountains. On days like that the coastal and inland readings pull well apart.
Busan is the largest container port in Korea. The ships that come and go, the cargo handling equipment, and the trucks in and out of the terminals are all sources, which gives the area around the port a different character from residential parts of the city.
Marine fuel tends to run higher in sulphur than road fuel, so sulphur dioxide emissions are comparatively high. In Busan it helps to read SO2 alongside particulates — it is a useful clue as to whether what you are seeing is the port.
City traffic sits on top of that. Roads in Busan thread through narrow ground between mountain and sea, so congestion is frequent, and roadside levels rise easily with it.
Even in winter Busan is more bearable than other large cities. A northwesterly crosses the peninsula and disperses a good deal before it arrives, and the sea breeze keeps ventilating.
In spring Asian dust has an effect, but it usually passes more weakly than in the central region. That said, a southerly wind can push values up on some days.
In summer particulates are at their annual low. In their place, sunlight and sea breeze together produce days when ozone climbs. On a summer afternoon in Busan, the thing to watch is more often ozone than fine dust.
Readings vary quite a bit between stations even within the same region — roadside or residential, close to an industrial area or not. Below are the stations in Busan grouped by district.
Station and district names are shown in Korean, exactly as the monitoring agency publishes them.
| District | Count | Stations |
|---|---|---|
| 강서구 | 5 | 녹산동, 대저동, 명지동, 부산신항, 부산항 |
| 남구 | 3 | 대연동, 부산감만, 용호동 |
| 동구 | 3 | 부산북항, 수정동, 초량동 |
| 사상구 | 3 | 덕포동, 삼락동, 학장동 |
| 사하구 | 3 | 감천동, 당리동, 장림동 |
| 해운대구 | 3 | 우동, 재송동, 좌동 |
| 금정구 | 2 | 청룡동, 회동동 |
| 기장군 | 2 | 기장읍, 용수리 |
| 동래구 | 2 | 명장동, 온천동 |
| 부산진구 | 2 | 개금동, 전포동 |
| 북구 | 2 | 덕천동, 화명동 |
| 영도구 | 2 | 청학동, 태종대 |
| 서구 | 1 | 대신동 |
| 수영구 | 1 | 광안동 |
| 연제구 | 1 | 연산동 |
| 중구 | 1 | 광복동 |
Stations are grouped into networks according to what they were built to watch.
What each level means and what to do about it is in the air quality scale. If you need to pick a mask, see choosing a mask; if indoor air is on your mind, see indoor air.
Some days a station goes quiet because of maintenance or a network fault. When that happens, just swipe to the next one — Busan has 36, so there is almost always another nearby.
The sea. A steady onshore breeze keeps pollutants from accumulating, and air arriving from outside the country has crossed the peninsula and dispersed on the way. Summer ozone, though, can be higher in Busan on some days.
Different terrain and different sources. Haeundae sits right on the sea and the wind passes through freely; Sasang and Buk-gu are ringed by mountains, with industrial areas and major arterial roads close by.
It may be the port. Marine fuel tends to be higher in sulphur, so SO2 can rise around port areas.