Coupled 2D fluid-kinetic simulations of a DIII-D high confinement tokamak plasma show that plasma rotation coupled with drift effects near the plasma edge play a significant role in the creation of the observed poloidal distribution of neutrals. It is observed that including either drift or rotation effects enhances particle flux at the inner target in the case of ion $B\times \nabla B$ drift toward the $X$-point. However, the particle flux asymmetry is significantly higher with the combination of drifts and rotation than either effect alone. The heightened particle flux asymmetry allows for improved simulation of the strong in-out asymmetry of the Lyman-$\alpha$ brightness profiles measured in the experiment. Enhancement of radial transport of parallel momentum changes the upstream scrape-off layer flow pattern, increasing the fraction of deuterium flux that reaches the inboard divertor entrance while lowering that which arrives at the outboard. This Letter indicates that by combining drifts, rotation, and viscous coupling, existing boundary plasma models can achieve a satisfactory agreement with experimentally measured neutral asymmetries.

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• Magnetic confinement fusion
• Plasma transport
• Plasma-wall interactions
• Fusion reactors
• Tokamaks
• Hybrid model
• Monte Carlo methods
• Two-fluid & multi-fluid model