  We present a sample of 24 local star-forming galaxies observed with broad-
and narrow-band photometry from the Hubble Space Telescope, that are part of
the GOALS survey of local luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies. With
narrow-band filters around the emission lines H$\alpha$ (and [NII]) and
Pa$\beta$, we obtain robust estimates of the dust attenuation affecting the gas
in each galaxy, probing higher attenuation than can be traced by the optical
Balmer decrement H$\alpha$/H$\beta$ alone by a factor of $>1$ mag. We also
infer the dust attenuation towards the stars via a spatially-resolved
SED-fitting procedure that uses all available HST imaging filters. We use
various indicators to obtain the star formation rate (SFR) per spatial bin, and
find that Pa$\beta$ traces star-forming regions where the H$\alpha$ and the
optical stellar continuum are heavily obscured. The dust-corrected Pa$\beta$
SFR recovers the 24$\mu$m-inferred SFR with a ratio $-0.14\pm0.32$ dex and the
SFR inferred from the $8\mathrm{-}1000\,\mu\mathrm{m}$ infrared luminosity at
$-0.04\pm0.23$ dex. Both in a spatially-resolved and integrated sense,
rest-frame near infrared recombination lines can paint a more comprehensive
picture of star formation across cosmic time, particularly with upcoming JWST
observations of Paschen-series line emission in galaxies as early as the epoch
of reionization.

Astrophysics of Galaxies