The future high spectral resolution lidar(HSRL) system employs a narrow spectral filter to separate the particulate(cloud/aerosol) and molecular scattering components in the lidar return signals, which improves the quality of the retrieved cloud/aerosol optical properties. A simulation method of HSRL return signal based on HSRL detection principle was presented. The principle was that the CALIPSO cloud/aerosol extinction coefficient product and numerical weather forecast data were used to simulate the spaceborne HSRL 532 nm return signal. The performance of two typical spectral filters, i.e., Fabry-Pérot interferometric(FPI) and iodine absorption filters, were analyzed using the simulated spaceborne HSRL return signals when they used as spaceborne HSRL molecular channel filter. The sensitivity analysis of three typical HSRL echo profiles(clear sky, cirrus cloud, aerosol, two-layer thick cloud) shows that the performance of iodine absorption filter was obviously better than that of FPI filter. The iodine absorption filter can maintain negligible relative deviation (<4.0×10-3%), which was caused by the backward scattering effect of particles with low optical thickness(<1.0). However, an FPI filter would still be a good choice for spaceborne HSRL systems if its particulate backscattering transmittance can be maintained below a level of 10-3.