Local SDSS galaxies in Herschel Stripe 82

Total infrared (TIR) luminosities derived from HerS and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometry allow us to compare infrared and optical estimates of SFR with unprecedented statistics for diverse classes of galaxies. We find excellent agreement between TIR-derived and emission line-based SFRs for H ii galaxies.

Other classes, such as active galaxies and evolved galaxies, exhibit systematic discrepancies between optical and TIR SFRs. We demonstrate that these offsets are attributable primarily to survey biases and the large intrinsic uncertainties of the D_n_4000- and colour-based optical calibrations used to estimate the SDSS SFRs of these galaxies. Using a classification scheme which expands upon popular emission-line methods, we demonstrate that emission-line galaxies with uncertain classifications include a population of massive, dusty, metal-rich star-forming systems that are frequently neglected in existing studies.