In 2017, Ice Atmosphere Ocean Observing System autonomous drifting platforms provided extensive physical and biogeochemical data in the upper 350 m of the western Eurasian Basin through their 8‐month drift across the Amundsen Basin, the Gakkel Ridge, the Nansen Basin and western Fram Strait. Comparison with WOA13 climatology indicates a fresher surface layer and shallower warm layer in 2017 than in 2005–2012. The Ice Atmosphere Ocean Observing System 2017 data feature two halocline eddies in the Amundsen Basin and two Atlantic Water (AW) mesoscale structures in the Nansen Basin. Analysis of the global (1/12)° Mercator Ocean operational system suggests that the halocline eddies resulted from instabilities in the frontal zone between fresher Makarov waters and saltier Eurasian waters. This frontal region appears to have shifted further southeast in 2017 (near 88°N, 10°E) compared to 2005–2012. The operational system depicts the large AW structure in the Nansen Basin (140 km crossed as far as 83.7°N, 34.5°E) as an AW meander from the Arctic Circumpolar Boundary Current, which turned into an anticyclonic eddy about a month after the platforms drifted away. The AW structure at 82.8°N, 3°W, northwest of the Yermak Plateau, corresponds to an AW recirculating branch detaching from the Yermak Plateau slope back toward Fram Strait.