Air Quality in South Korea

How air quality works in South Korea: the index it uses, the pollutants that dominate, the seasonal pattern, the cities to watch, and the agencies that monitor it. South Korea reports on the Comprehensive Air-quality Index (CAI).

The big picture

South Korea has among the higher particulate levels in the OECD, and "fine dust" (misemeonji) is a prominent public concern. The country reports air quality on the Comprehensive Air-quality Index (CAI), a 0–500 scale with four grades.

Dominant pollutants and where they come from

PM2.5 and PM10 dominate, from a combination of domestic sources (traffic, industry, coal power, heating), transboundary transport from the Asian mainland, and seasonal Asian dust. Ozone rises on hot summer days.

The seasonal pattern

Late winter and spring (roughly March–May) are the worst, when local emissions, stagnation, transboundary transport, and "yellow dust" (hwangsa) coincide — see Asian Dust (Hwangsa). Summer brings photochemical ozone; the heating season lifts the winter particulate baseline.

Who monitors it

AirKorea, run by the Korea Environment Corporation under the Ministry of Environment, publishes the real-time CAI and Asian-dust alerts; the Korea Meteorological Administration issues dust warnings.

Cities in South Korea

Primary sources: AirKorea (Korea Environment Corporation)