Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2014
It is not straightforward to determine the distribution of supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Galaxy. The two main difficulties are that there are observational selection effects that mean that catalogues of SNRs are incomplete, and distances are not available for most remnants. Here I discuss the selection effects that apply to the latest catalogue of Galactic SNRs. I then compare the observed distribution of ‘bright’ SNRs in Galactic longitude with that expected from models in order to constrain the Galactic distribution of SNRs.