The area of the polar cap as a function of local time and substorm phase was measured using images from the Polar Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) for different interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) orientations during three substorms in January 1997. We measured changes in the polar cap area and motion of the poleward and equatorward boundary of the auroral oval. It was found that the polar cap boundary is strongly influenced by thinning of the oval, decrease in polar cap structures, the poleward expansion of the substorm at midnight, and the fading of luminosity below the instrument sensitivity threshold. Generally, these effects dominate over the latitudinal motion of the auroral oval at its equatorward edge. A new feature is that the polar cap region clears of precipitation during the substorm growth phase, which expands the size of the polar cap but is not necessarily related to an expansion of the open flux region. Another finding is that the increase in polar cap area prior to onset can be independent of the strength of the southward IMF component. For one case the polar cap area increased while the southward component of the IMF was 0¿0.5 nT. These observations have strong implications for models that use the polar cap area to estimate the magnitude of energy storage in the lobe magnetic field and loss during substorms. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union