Title: Characterizing Dust Attenuation in Local Star-Forming Galaxies: Near-Infrared Reddening and Normalization,
Abstract: We characterize the near-infrared (NIR) dust attenuation for a sample of
~5500 local (z<0.1) star-forming galaxies and obtain an estimate of their
average total-to-selective attenuation $k(\lambda)$. We utilize data from the
United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) and the Two Micron All-Sky Survey
(2MASS), which is combined with previously measured UV-optical data for these
galaxies. The average attenuation curve is slightly lower in the far-UV than
local starburst galaxies, by roughly 15%, but appears similar at longer
wavelengths with a total-to-selective normalization at V-band of
$R_V=3.67\substack{+0.44 \\ -0.35}$. Under the assumption of energy balance,
the total attenuated energy inferred from this curve is found to be broadly
consistent with the observed infrared dust emission ($L_{\rm{TIR}}$) in a small
sample of local galaxies for which far-IR measurements are available. However,
the significant scatter in this quantity among the sample may reflect large
variations in the attenuation properties of individual galaxies. We also derive
the attenuation curve for sub-populations of the main sample, separated
according to mean stellar population age (via $D_n4000$), specific star
formation rate, stellar mass, and metallicity, and find that they show only
tentative trends with low significance, at least over the range which is probed
by our sample. These results indicate that a single curve is reasonable for
applications seeking to broadly characterize large samples of galaxies in the
local Universe, while applications to individual galaxies would yield large
uncertainties and is not recommended.