Description
We present Spitzer mid-infrared imaging of a sample of 35 tidally distorted premerger interacting galaxy pairs selected from the Arp Atlas. We compare their global mid-infrared properties with those of normal galaxies from the SINGS Spitzer Legacy survey, and separate the disk emission from that of the tidal features. The [8.0um]-[24um], [3.6um]-[24um], and [5.8um]-[8.0um] colors of these optically selected interacting galaxies are redder on average than those of spirals, implying enhancements to the mass-normalized star formation rates (SFRs) of a factor of ~2.
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