We present a high-spectral-resolution test and calibration station for precision measurement of ultra-narrow bandwidth optical filters, and how this is used in the processing of daytime measurements from a resonance Doppler potassium lidar at Arecibo. The test station consists of Doppler-free saturation–absorption spectroscopy coupled with a small free-spectral-range Fabry–Perot etalon, which produces a precise measurement of the filter passband over a range of 20GHz (40pm) or more with a resolution of under 2MHz. This setup is used to measure the bandpass function of a Faraday anomalous dispersion optical filter with a band center at 770nm and full width at half maximum of about 3.64GHz (∼7.2pm), which is the principal spectral filter in the Arecibo lidar. This bandpass function is then used to calibrate the Doppler-broadened returns from the K lidar. As the Faraday filter passband is narrow enough, the return lidar signals in both the resonance fluorescence and Rayleigh scattering are affected. We describe a calibration process to deconvolve the measured filter function from the return signals in order to achieve accurate temperature measurements. Our approach is demonstrated with actual lidar measurements.