In recent years, moving target detection methods based on low-rank and sparse matrix decomposition have been developed, and they have achieved good results. However, there is not enough interpretation to support the assumption that there is a high correlation among the reverberations after each transmitting pulse. In order to explain the correlation of reverberations, a new reverberation model is proposed from the perspective of scattering cells in this paper. The scattering cells are the subarea divided from the detection area. The energy fluctuation of a scattering cell with time and the influence of the neighboring cells are considered. Key parameters of the model were analyzed by numerical analysis, and the applicability of the model was verified by experimental analysis. The results showed that the model can be used for several simulations to evaluate the performance of moving target detection methods.