 Image obstruction by an annihilating functional

If a linear functional $\ell$ vanishes on the image of a linear map $T$ but $\ell (b)\ne 0$, the equation $Tx=b$ has no solution. In Euclidean coordinates, a vector $n$ with $n^{T}A=0$ provides such an obstruction whenever $n^{T}b\ne 0$. In finite dimensions these annihilating functionals exactly characterize membership in the image: $b\in \mathrm{im}A$ precisely when it is orthogonal to every vector in $\ker A^T$.