In this paper, generalized cross validation is implemented to solve an inverse problem to identify global lightning distribution from measured Schumann resonance. The inverse problem to identify the lightning distribution as a function of the distance from the observer is formulated in terms of Schumann resonance spectra calculated by the finite difference method. Tikhonov's regularization is introduced for proper inversion, and the optimal parameter for the regularization is evaluated by using the generalized cross validation as an objective estimation. We compared the results obtained in the present paper with the data collected by the Lightning Image Sensor during December 1999, and this comparison shows a better agreement than the previous results.